One of the first steps we took to prepare our land for our homestead was to begin to build up our soil. The majority of the acres have been row cropped conventionally with corn and soybeans, so they are surely full of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and GMO residue. Yum! Besides that, when you leave soil exposed between crops, there is nothing to keep the soil from washing away, which is what has happened here. We have incredible gullies running through the fields- so deep that I literally lose the kids in them. I call out and see heads pop up to answer me!
So to help restore the soil we will be growing 4 crops per year (for the next 2 years) of cover crops which also serve as green manure- feeding the soil.
The book Managing Cover Crops Profitably explains:
"Cover crops slow erosion, improve soil, smother weeds, enhance nutrient and moisture availablility, control many pests and bring a host of other benefits to your farm."
We will cut/kill each crop- some before, some after reseeding or letting the crop reseed itself- in order to improve the soil by adding organic matter- kind of like composting in place all over the fields. With the help of Adam Turtle, of Earth Advocates Research Farm, we chose ryegrass for it's quick and cold weather starting ability as well as clovers to add nitrogen to the soil (and feed the bees :)
Good ideas, right? Yeah, well, the execution was a lot of work.....
300 lbs of seed- annual ryegrass, ladino white clover, and crimson clover.
I had several people calling me crazy, but I wanted to do this by hand, or with a shoulder spreader. I did about 80% of the seeding with a shoulder spreader loaned to me by Delvin Farms, and Daddy did some with a borrowed push spreader. Yes my arm hurt that first night, but it feels awesome to think that we did this without using any engines or energy besides my own. I have now walked almost over every inch of those fields (well, within about 5 ft of every inch, that is) three times- one pass for each type of seed.
Rye seeds
It took me about 12 hours of actual work over two days, with lots of picnics, exploring and laying in the grass to stare at the sky scattered between work sessions.
Photo credits to ReRe!
1 comments:
Oh Amanda, how lovely!!! I'm so excited for you and your family. I love your links, they have inspired me!!! We were not confident enough to build the house ourselves but have learned so much. Now we feel we can do just about anything and we'll learn and grow as we make many mistakes.
Good job reclaiming that GMO land!!!!!!! whahooo!!
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