Anyone living off the land?

[newbie32]

yeah they are doing it in deserts too. I was hoping someone has something similar so I could ask questions and see photos.

 

[Baymule]

If you planted trees on little hills and vegetables in the valleys around here, the valleys would flood.

 

[J3nn]

It sounds like what farmers do when they have erosion problems. They will plant a big area of a certain crop and leave a big area of grass between each area of crops. This prevents there soil from washing away. I' m not sure what this method is called, but it works very well. They also plant different crops each year to leave more nutrients in there soil. They will plant clover and other plants in the crop area after harvest. They will let it grow and then turn the soil to put nutrients back in there soil, so they will have good healthy crops next growing season.

grassy areas between production areas are filter strips. Filter strips decrease erosion and trap excess nutrients (such as phosphorus and nitrogen) before they enter waterways. Filter strips increase soil health and water quality-both important to agriculture and the environment as a whole. Cover crops (such as clover, cereal grains, radishes, etc) are crops planted between cash crops. Cover crops have many benefits-they grow fast, deep roots because root paths are already there from the cash crop. The deep roots will maintain over the winter, then the next year cash crops will be able to grow even deeper roots-making them drought resistant and all around healthier plants. Cover crops high in nitrogen, such as legumes, offer additional benefits such as decreased input (fertilizer) costs such as absorbing excess N the cash crop didn't take up and depositing their own naturally occurring N when they die. Hope that helps shed some light on these two conservation practices!

 

[chicken-lady13]

Thank you for the help with jarring my memory. I remember learning about these farming techniques in science and biology classes. Its been along time though. My late father and my foster father both were farmers and they did both farming techniques on their farms. My cousins also practice these techniques in their nursery business. It is all about good soil & irragation & healthy trees & bushes . They want to have good quality nursery products and happy customers. They are always working on ways to give back to the earth for which they took. They are always trying to stay natural NOT chemical. They constantly monitoring their soil and their water sources. They have a very successful business in my home state of Tennessee.

 

[chicken-lady13]

Hey NEWBIE. That ornamental grass I was telling u about spreads and gets larger each year and can be divided up and put in other locations on your property. When u move dig a little up and take it with u to start new clumps at your new location. It spreads and makes bigger clumps fast. You can start with just a little of it and within a couple of years or three u will have several clumps of it. The striped kind is my favorite it comes in yellow or white striped and has beautiful feather like shoots in the fall. It comes back every year( per annual )bigger and prettier each year.I wish I could send u some of mine. I got a yard full of it. I have to dig it up and throw it away when it starts getting out of hand or plant it some where else. My husband wants me to start a privacy fence with it , so our house can't be seen from the road during the summer and fall. Yes that is how well it covers. I sold quite a bit of it in the spring at our local flea market and done quite well. I sold it to a lot of landscapers to. They like to use it in decorating up new the yards of people who have built new houses. Good luck ! I hope it works for u.

 

[newbie32]

Hey NEWBIE. That ornamental grass I was telling u about spreads and gets larger each year and can be divided up and put in other locations on your property. When u move dig a little up and take it with u to start new clumps at your new location. It spreads and makes bigger clumps fast. You can start with just a little of it and within a couple of years or three u will have several clumps of it. The striped kind is my favorite it comes in yellow or white striped and has beautiful feather like shoots in the fall. It comes back every year( per annual )bigger and prettier each year.I wish I could send u some of mine. I got a yard full of it. I have to dig it up and throw it away when it starts getting out of hand or plant it some where else. My husband wants me to start a privacy fence with it , so our house can't be seen from the road during the summer and fall. Yes that is how well it covers. I sold quite a bit of it in the spring at our local flea market and done quite well. I sold it to a lot of landscapers to. They like to use it in decorating up new the yards of people who have built new houses. Good luck ! I hope it works for u.

Sounds good to me!!!! Thank you so much I am definitely going to do it instead of trying the grass from seed because I know it will grow out here.

AND I can take it with me so I wont invest in something I leave behind! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!

grassy areas between production areas are filter strips. Filter strips decrease erosion and trap excess nutrients (such as phosphorus and nitrogen) before they enter waterways. Filter strips increase soil health and water quality-both important to agriculture and the environment as a whole. Cover crops (such as clover, cereal grains, radishes, etc) are crops planted between cash crops. Cover crops have many benefits-they grow fast, deep roots because root paths are already there from the cash crop. The deep roots will maintain over the winter, then the next year cash crops will be able to grow even deeper roots-making them drought resistant and all around healthier plants. Cover crops high in nitrogen, such as legumes, offer additional benefits such as decreased input (fertilizer) costs such as absorbing excess N the cash crop didn't take up and depositing their own naturally occurring N when they die. Hope that helps shed some light on these two conservation practices!

Cool! That's what I was talking about!!!!

Now how do I do it? What can I plant as cash crops(except it is my backyard not for cash) that will grow in or at least not die in desert summer months? I need ideas about the specific things I could do. I looked it up and didn't find anything on the actual specific plants to grow in order to achieve what you were talking about.

 

[chicken-lady13]

When you are talking about cash crops , they are grown in large quantities on acres of land. After harvest They are sold to feed people and live stock. They are also sold to make other things out of. They are sold to large company's for BIG money. Like ( tobacco, corn, soy beans, cotton and various other crops. I hope this helps. I wish I knew what to tell u that would grow well for u, but I don't know. I have never lived in a desert area. I have family in Silver City ,New Mexico and maybe I can ask them for u. My Aunt always has lots of vegatables from her garden when we go to visit. I believe she has raised gardens and uses a lot of potting soil and manure mix in them. She waters it late ever evening during dry spells. She grows all your normal thought of vegatables.

 

[chicken-lady13]

I have traveled all over the US and some of the prettiest Rose gardens I have ever seen was in lower California, Arizona, & New MEXICO. The prettiest azaleas and rotadendroms ( proubley spelled wrong) were in the lower South.

 

[chicken-lady13]

Different parts of the country seems to have there own special plants that grow and look there best in there native habitat. U should see my awful looking cactus's .I kill more than I grow, between me and mother nature, ( we think they look thirsty!) and boy is that a mistake. They actually explode on me! LOL However I haven't killed the Yuca plants off yet, boy they must be tough !

 

[newbie32]

Different parts of the country seems to have there own special plants that grow and look there best in there native habitat. U should see my awful looking cactus's .I kill more than I grow, between me and mother nature, ( we think they look thirsty!) and boy is that a mistake. They actually explode on me! LOL However I haven't killed the Yuca plants off yet, boy they must be tough !

LOL I actually killed a cactus once because I NEVER watered it. So I learned my lesson and bought an aloe plant. It dies because I watered it too much

. I think part of my problem is that when I research something about desert plants they always bring Arizona up. Arizona gets more rain than we do here. My grandma lived there for 10 years and I know they get monsoon rains. That is why I struggle with what to plant. Plus, we are 2+ feet below sea level. I have seen lots of crops out here by commercial fields but I don't understand the soil and plant needs. The people at the nurseries here only grow cacti and citrus as far as food plants go. And most don't speak English so I have a hard time. Ugh okay well I am definitely going to do the grass for the chickens. Do you think it will provide bugs for them, would they eat the grass?