Biodiverse Polyculture (USDA 8a Zone Pasture) - sounds better than "My Acres of Weeds"

[Marie2020]

I'm hooked

 

[centrarchid]

I got a significant problem with this thread. Where are there hills in Florida? Fire Ant mounds and backs of sleeping hogs do not count.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I got a significant problem with this thread. Where are there hills in Florida? Fire Ant mounds and backs of sleeping hogs do not count.

I can *almost* spit on Alabama from the top of mine. and that's as specific as i choose to get with my location - but you are correct that there really are very few hills in FL - you near have to leave the state to find one.

also, have you seen our hogs?? they are like VW Beetles with tusks and hooves for wheels.

 

[raingarden]

Bicolor Lespedeza

 

[629864]

We have them all over too. Mostly growing up in the trees and yopon. We always try to get as many as we can reach and snatch before all the critters attack them.

We just moved to our property a year ago, so only one of each season so far. We were thrilled to discover we had several muscadine vines...but some sort of dark green beetle aggressively kept eating the leaves and no fruit ever appeared (probably also due to the beetles). We avoid pesticides for many reasons, but in this case because we have animals that could be poisoned by their use. I did section off one vine with fencing to see if dusting would help. It didnt. At all. As soon as the first rain came, the beetles were back. They also decimated the collard greens my husband was soooo looking forward to. Do any of you know if the chickens might be of use in the coming spring/summer to eradicate said beetles without destroying the collards in the process?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Bicolor Lespedeza

I just looked that up. THANK YOU. Looks wonderful. I'll keep my eyes out for that - I bet the goats would love it. Evewn if it is a non-native.

 

[NatJ]

Do any of you know if the chickens might be of use in the coming spring/summer to eradicate said beetles without destroying the collards in the process?

Have you tried covering the collards?

Floating row cover (it's like a thin fabric) is pretty good at keeping bugs out, as long as you put it on before any bugs actually get on the plants. Sunlight and water go right through it, so you can just leave it on all season (except for things like weeding and harvesting.)

Maybe you could turn chickens into the area to scratch and eat any existing bugs, then put in the plants, then immediately cover them.

Covering the grape vines might be an option too, depending on what shapes & sizes the plants are. The "floating row cover" comes in very wide sizes sometimes (like 10+ feet wide.)

 

[raingarden]

I just looked that up. THANK YOU. Looks wonderful. I'll keep my eyes out for that - I bet the goats would love it. Evewn if it is a non-native.

You know, nothing beats wide open spaces. But, you can add some "structure" in strategic locations to provide wind break, shade, refuge from hawks, partitions to create paddocks or "rooms, and stuff like that.

I think the best plant in the SE for that is wax myrtle. It's is easily transplanted, does well in just about any soil, grows quick, grows thick, tolerates any type of pruning so you can scuplt it into the structure you want. The trick is to have access to a wax myrtle thicket to transplant from and a source of water to keep them damp while getting established.

 

[Chickie Girls]

This is great information U_Stormcrow! We are moving soon and will have a few acres to add more chickens. We plan to plant an area for the chickens to free-range and your research will be very helpful with that. Thank you!​

 

[U_Stormcrow]

That's what BYC is for. Glad you found it useful. I'll be back at it in the spring with some new plantings, and some updates on what survived what's proving to be an unusually cold snap after an unusually warm period. Expect I'll lose all the citrus tonight - not because I can't water it with sprinklers to protect against 24-26 degree weather the next two nights, but because its been raining the last two days, my clay soils are saturated. Which means the holes that were dug for the citrus and filled with good dirt work like bathtubs, allowing water to pool below the soil surface, and drowning the roots. Between the rain we've had already, and an estimatred 20 hours of sprinklers, even if I had dug the holes for the citrus with a back hoe, they wouldn't be big enough...