cleared half acre, now what?

[GoinCountry]

What an exciting opportunity, congrats! I moved to SW Virginia fall 2020. The original inhabitants had a garden, but the folks we bought from didn't do anything to it. It was 7 foot high weeds and saplings when we moved in.

DH pulled trees with his truck and tilled it. I laid cardboard overlapping the whole plot. Then covered it in hay. Some weeds were still sprouting from the root, but it wasn't so bad to stay on top of. Even fewer this year. (Virginia creeper, Greenbriar, wormwood come back from just tiny bits of root. I hate them.)

Even if you get a slower start than you want, observe the land. How does the sun move throughout the year? Where does water run and where does it pool? Where are underground lines for water, power, sewer/septic? Planning well now saves tons of effort. Plants do much better if you select their site to suit their needs. Learn the land.

I know this is going to sound awful. But it's not exciting for me.
if it would work, i could put hay down over the whole area. I'm just freaking out about the va creeper and other poison plants growing back quickly. Things grow here quickly. I came from 18 yrs in phoenix, before that calif.
I'd like to build a tiny cabin there. goodness knows there's enough wood left in the rest of the forest.
I'd like to have rhodies between me and the neighbors? something evergreen.

 

[sjango]

Me and my partner have been working an acre and a half in So California for just over 5 years. When we first got it it was uncultivated and covered in weeds and unwanted treed. We farm organic, so weeds and saplings are a yearly battle. From our experience trees are much less work in the long run than annuals so I personally would suggest planting more trees like Apples, Cherry, Plums, Peaches, Persimmon, and Pawpaw. We do not use landscape cloth but do use plenty of mulch to suppress weeds between the trees and hand pull while we inspect your trees. If you want some annuals keep a plot or a few garden boxes close to the house for access and so you can monitor them easier. We have a small in-ground plot and 8 garden boxes for annuals right outside our back door.

As far as enthusiasm for gardening I will say I've learned the more time I spend in the garden the more I like it. I have come appreciate all of our plants in ways I never would have expected when I first started out. For me getting into gardening took a while but there is no going back now!

 

[GoinCountry]

 

[GoinCountry]

apparently I can upload a short vid. I'll go take one and do just that

 

[MadGardener]

I know this is going to sound awful. But it's not exciting for me.
if it would work, i could put hay down over the whole area. I'm just freaking out about the va creeper and other poison plants growing back quickly. Things grow here quickly. I came from 18 yrs in phoenix, before that calif.
I'd like to build a tiny cabin there. goodness knows there's enough wood left in the rest of the forest.
I'd like to have rhodies between me and the neighbors? something evergreen.

Sorry it's a less than happy occasion for you. I hope that once you get started you'll enjoy gardening. It helped keep me sane through very hard times.

If you do Facebook I'd recommend a local gardening group. They can help on what to plant and when.

My recommendation is based on my climate and if you want to get started faster it could be possible. I'd recommend clear a bed, or build a raised box, for your fall crops (leafy greens, broccoli, peas, etc). Till your patch in late winter or early spring. This will deplete the energy the weeds stored in the roots. A barrier will help (cardboard, several sheets of paper with overlapping edges). I prefer not to use landscape fabric or plastic because they eventually come to pieces. If you can get your hands on manure or compost, definitely get it. Otherwise mulch is your new best friend. Leaves are my favorite, I used to buy them from the city yard waste center for a good price. In the country, Hubby mows with the bagger and piles em up for me. I find big round hay bales give me much fewer grass seedlings than square hay from Lowe's.

I'm not a fan of pesticides. If you would like to use them, make sure it hasn't been dry for a long time. Most plants will carry the poison from leaf to root if you spray leaves during summer.

 

[GoinCountry]

I'm an excellent gardener. I had a thriving garden in phoenix. Difference between here and there is the wet. The woodchips caught fire when we were on vacation and got within a foot of the house. here, the firemen said don't worry about them catching fire. lol
I LIKE to grow things. I can grow almost anything. But this is daunting. Everything before this has been of manageable size.

I DID buy the square bales from Lowe's, lol how'd you know?
Where to buy the round bales?
We hacked in to the bark of the tree of heaven, sprayed with roundup. it takes it to roots, the flowers and leaves fail, then you can cut down the tree.

Apparently everything here has to be sprayed multiple times. You can't just pull it and be done with it, like Phoenix.

There are plenty of leaves here. even some lovely compost in the other side of the forest, with turkey tail mushrooms even.

Thanks for the tip on tilling in the fall. Never have seen that tip.

Been looking up sweat lodges, outdoor kitchens, building a tiny house. There's a LOT of trees left in the forest.
And building a pole barn. But that might be more than we can chew.

 

[GoinCountry]

I guess I can't upload a vid

 

[saysfaa]

Don't worry about how you answered - that works. Sometimes I can't see new posts until I refresh the screen. I usually read all the posts, but maybe not everyone does. You can click the +quote then reply to a post, then another post, as many times as you like. Then answer all or each in one post. But you don't have to; what you did works too.

I've got the virginnia creeper, poison ivy, and sumac (but staghorn, not poisonous) all of which I've been trying to clear at least out of the fields and fence rows. Not the other plants you have (well, not in enough vigor to bother with yet); I also have several different invasive species too, though.

Since you already have the fence and posts, I'd talk to the neighbor who has the goats and see if he will pasture them inside your fence - with him taking care of them there. I'd run a water line out to fence (you will want it for your garden anyway). If you don't have a well in yet, then this after you put the well in. I would offer to pay him for the services of the goats because a half acre is probably not going to be worth him renting it as pasture for the goats, and he may need to feed them there or move them in and out.

I also have a neighbor with goats that I hoped would want to use some pasture. I haven't talked to her yet because getting the fence in hasn't reached the top of my priority list yet (partly because it is a 10 acre pasture and very overgrown). I did think about how it might work, though.

If your neighbor isn't interested, then I'd map out a perimeter (about the width of your lawn mower or twice the width of your lawn mower.) and keep that clear of any/all unwanted plant species. You should be able to do that (for many of the species you don't want) by just mowing if you mow often enough. Then as you have time and energy, work in from that perimeter - make the perimeter wider and/or make a path through the middle and/or make a clearing on one end. If you have enough time and energy then you will end up doing all of it. But if you try to do all of it and don't have enough time and/or energy then you end up bailing water in a sinking boat.

Along with the paths idea, and whatever else I did, I'd walk the paths frequently watching what plants grow and trying to learn to see the patterns of what grows how, when, and where. And walk through the middles occasionally to take out the tree of heaven sprouts and virginnia creep sprouts (with clippers and then paint the stems with BrushBGone or Round Up or something similar - look up what works best on that plant. The state wildlife service recommended this method as a good compromise between effectiveness and minimal chemical use. Like the paths, it is better to keep some areas completely clear and work on the borders of those areas than to try to do more of it than you can.

It is pretty late for planting wheat (uh, I don't know if that is a good choice in your climate, it might be). Anyway, it is not too late to plant buckwheat. Buckwheat is a good cover crop - both for green manure reasons and for crowding out undesirable plants reasons. You can plant it by broadcasting it by hand (5 acres took me ALL day; a half an acre should be doable)... anyway, take a handfull and throw it out in a sweep. Try to get it even but don't worry if it isn't. Plant it fairly thick. It will be more effective if you let the plants regrow (for ten days or so in my climate but it might be shorter in your warmer, wetter climate - your extension office or neighbors should know), then have them sprayed with round up and let that do its thing for a week or so. Then disc it under (optionally, but you will get a better stand of buckwheat if you do). Then plant the buckwheat.

Then, late this fall or next spring, see if you can hire someone to disc the buckwheat under or rototill it under. That should cost less than having the land cleared. Or you can rent a rototiller. That will help crowd out you undesirable plant species, help the field look nice. I saw you don't want a grassy field but maybe for a year while you prep it and wait for the right season to plant what you do want?

The landscape fabric under rock makes me shudder - I've had to deal with rocks as mulch in previous houses. The landscape fabric in a raised bed for your garden - great idea!

A colony of staghorn sumac is a clone - or all one plant- the "new" plants are coming up from the roots of the older plants as opposed to seedlings or such. So, it works best to take the whole colony out at once. August is the best time to do it (least vigorous regrowth). I'd do it by cutting each stem with lopers and painting the tops of the stems and down an inch or two with BrushBGone. Expect it to grow back - it takes about three years to eradicate it this way. The alternative is to pull enough of the roots out. My brother did that for a small colony (maybe 50'x100'); it is a LOT of work and he had a big tractor to do the pulling. I don't know how closely related poison sumac is to staghorn sumac.

Disinfect your lopers after cutting it.

I have a lot less trouble with virginnia creeper - just loping when I see the green growing in the dead vines of it is making good progress. But, I might be in marginal climate for it - so you might need to look up how to control it.

 

[saysfaa]

Hm, if you want to use the wood - you know to stack it up off the ground, right? Otherwise, it will be punky and unusable in a few months - at least in my climate. I understand at least parts of VA it needs termite protection too.

 

[NatJ]

I had someone come in yesterday and used a mulcher on half acre. There are small stumps left, albeit chewed up, but stumbling blocks nonetheless. There was virginia creeper, poison sumac, poison ivy, trees on it. It's now cleared. I have limited funds. At the most $10k to spend. There is no barn, no shed, carport, zilch on the property here. I need help in figuring out what to do with this huge space. I'll post photos but it has to be from my phone, so I'll come back and do that.

If you do not want all that vegetation to grow back, one option is to put up a fance and have goats, or chickens, or pigs.

Pigs will actually dig the roots out.
Goats or chickens will eat the new growth, and if they keep eating it, the roots eventually die.

Almost any kind of animal can kill all the plants in an area, depending on how many animals and how big the area is. I don't know whether that is what you want to do, but I'm just mentioning it as something you can consider.