Forestry Mulching

[milkmansdaughter]

I bet every time you step outside and see the difference, you are thrilled all over again! We get vines and briars and wild grape vines like that here too (oh, and Kudzu too.) They sure can make a tangled mess FAST. But how cool that not only is it cleaned up, but mulched at the same time! Woohoo!

 

[Beekissed]

Bay, will you be seeding all of that land now to grass? Looks pretty level, so you probably don't have to worry about soil erosion at all, do you? Around here when they do a strip of the land like that, it's usually on a hill or mountain and then we get to see massive soil erosion take place if they don't hurry and reseed it to some kind of grass/tree/shrub.

 

[baymule]

There is a gulley in the horse pasture that gets deeper as it crosses the pipeline and during rainy season, seeps keep the water running as it exits our property. There is a slope, nothing like your mountains, but enough to erode. The sand is loose and it washes.

My husband is going to drag the front end loader on the ground to push the mulch away. We will do this in strips. The mulch will help to trap soil and keep it from washing away. The bare dirt will be for seeding pasture. This fall I plan on Crimson clover and white ball clover and rye grass. In the spring, I will plant giant Bermuda. I can't do it all at once, but I also plan on planting forage plantain, chicory and brome. My sheep LOVE chicory and will eat it down to a stump. Except the Bermuda, these are all cool season grasses, I need to plant more hot weather grasses. I figure on a good 2 years to get what I want established. I want to make a diverse pasture. I may even plant giant ragweed and lambs quarters, since the sheep love them so much. There is a weed here called Poor Joe that the horses and sheep will eat. It has a long taproot and I figure that it draws up nutrients they want. I have crab grass, but it dies back in the dry and heat. There is a little bahia here, but I want another summer grass too.

I have an invasive weed, sida rhombifolia. the sheep love it and will strip the leaves off. It is said to be toxic for goats. It is also a medicinal herb. I have eaten the leaves off the plant, not too bad.

https://earthmedicineinstitute.com/more/library/medicinal-plants/sida-rhombifolia/

This is the gulley where it exits our property.

Since there never is a rush of running water, we used bags of concrete to make a water gap, leaving spaces between the top 2 layers of bags. The paper has long since rotted off, but the concrete is still doing it's job.

@Beekissed this is just for you. LOL

 

[wyoDreamer]

I love the idea of placing the concrete IN THE BAGS along the low point of the fence where the gully is!! That is so ingenious.
Love the sheep picture!

 

[CrealCritter]

Smart right there! i must admit i've never seen anyone do that before for erosion control. Usually it's big field stones that weigh hundreds of lbs. Bags of concrete are easier to handle and cost less than big field stone, plus you can get a tighter fit, the paper is bio degradable and the cement sets up naturally with rain and moisture. Very cool idea @baymule !

BTW... The forestry mulching operator did a very nice job. Its usually the folks that want to work, are the ones that are best at it.

 

[baymule]

Having made a series of water gaps in my life, tagging along behind my grandpa as a kid and seeing failures in all of them, I needed something that would keep the dogs and sheep IN. So the concrete bags worked very well and are still working. They also work well stacked up around culverts to prevent them washing out.

 

[CrealCritter]

Having made a series of water gaps in my life, tagging along behind my grandpa as a kid and seeing failures in all of them, I needed something that would keep the dogs and sheep IN. So the concrete bags worked very well and are still working. They also work well stacked up around culverts to prevent them washing out.

Yep I can see where they would work well for culverts also. Its just a overall smart idea, that I've never seen done before. Beats sandbags that's for sure.

 

[baymule]

Here is a picture after the bags rotted off. My husband wanted a little pool, so that’s how I made it. It makes a good tadpole pool. LOL expand the picture, look how we ran another strip of wire to close in the bottom.

 

[baymule]

Oops, forgot the picture!

 

[baymule]

We ran a smooth twisted wire at the bottom, attaching it to the T-posts. That gave us something to hog ring the strip of wire at the bottom, to. Water passes through holes I left in the second from top layer and gaps I left between bags at the top.