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A little DBN soil history, according to the Ohio Division of Forestry, our land was cleared in the late 1800’s for farming. By around 1920 the farmer figured out that the steep slopes and high clay soils were not that good for agricultural purposes and they abandoned farming. In the 1930’s and early 40’s several species of pines and spruces were planted by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Various Ohio hardwoods also started natural reforestation. In the mid-1990’s Grant and Nancy Kittle (previous property owners) started raising buffalo and cleared most of a 5 acre field in the middle of the South-side of the property. In 1999, we reluctantly took down the remaining 75 trees to create our future organic agriculture site.
You know the old joke that goes like, "Our soil is so bad" and the audience responds, "How bad is it?", well Diana went to the field to prepare the samples for soil testing, she started with a shovel, moved to a pick and we ended up using a post-hole auger on the tractor--just to get soil samples! The results weren’t any better. The lab said that they had never seen soil so bad. We really have our work cut out for us. We consulted with the Soil and Water Conservation Division of the Agricultural Extension Office on reducing erosion and rebuilding our soil.
In 1999 we began the first of our "green manure" cover crops—winter wheat. Since that time we have planted oats, clover and timothy hay. We are also collecting just about any source of organic matter we can get our hands on--horse, llama and, chicken manure, saw dust, wood chips, compost, etc.—to try to improve the soil.
In 2000 we planted a whole host of berry bushes, as well as fruit and nut trees to see what would work best. With the help of a backhoe, yes a backhoe, and our family’s strong backs we mixed lime, manure, straw and peat in holes about 2-3 feet in diameter. We planted 10 blueberries, 10 cranberries, 60 red raspberries of various types, pear, apple, cherry, and peach trees, persimmons and hazel nut trees.
By fall, when we had hoped to be harvesting, we found that the:
- deer had browsed or rubbed all but a few of the other fruit trees to death
- nut trees became overgrown with weed and grass
- raspberries we purchased just died, although the ones we transplanted from family stock looked strong
- cranberries were barely hanging on
- blueberries did pretty well, until the deer ate all the new buds
- everything needed water, except the peach trees which were at the bottom of a slope, in heavy clay soil, and drowned.
So what did we learn, like Stephen Covey says, "first things first" or work on those things that are important but not urgent.
- Fencing comes first. In our area the white tailed deer are abundant. The farmers think we are crazy to try to keep them out with anything other than a shotgun. In 2002, we began testing a two-fence system we saw at Crown Point Ecological Learning Center in Akron. They had two, five-foot fences about five feet apart. The idea is that the deer can’t clear both of them together, and if they clear the outer fence, there is not enough room to get a running start to clear the inner one. The only way out is to go to
- corner and jump back over the outer fence. Crown Point says this has cut their deer problem by 95%. Our outer fence is a 7 string electric fence powered by a solar unit—so, so on the shock value output.
- Soil preparation comes second. We tried focusing on the whole 5 acre field even though we planted in less than _ acre. We were able to add little organic matter and nutrients on a large scale and the high-clay soil returned to near concrete hardness in no time at all. Unfortunately, remediating soil on a large scale is not a speedy process, especially if you don’t have ready access to huge volumes of organic matter for good compost development. We are now on a better track of growing green manure on the whole area, but focusing on at least prior year preparation of the planting area with as much organic matter as we can get our hands on. And, oh ya, be careful to compost any manure you get very well before adding to your soil, you could end up with more weeds than you could ever pull.
- Timing IS everything. It has been surprising to learn how time critical most aspects of agriculture are: plowing, disking, planting, fertilizing, pruning, pest control, water, harvesting.
- Irrigation can make the growing seasons more consistent.
What we learned
- Water
- Weed
- Fence
- Fertilize
- Pick…bugs that is
- Prep in the dry season
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