The Old Folks Home

[Alaskan]

rangeland means that it hasn't been plowed up, that is all native stuff.

The photo is actually of a well managed area, and soon after a rain. That is pretty much the best that that area of the country can ever hope to achieve.

And yes Deb, I think that area must be about 15 inches a year, at least that is what it looks like. Good eye Deb!

@getaclue you must be used to lovely pastureland, or a very wet area of the country. For example, most of the horse country in Kentucky is all pasture land, native stuff has been plowed away and replaced with Kentucky Bluegrass, a giant monoculture of a beautiful deep blue green soft lush grass.

 

[perchie.girl]

@Alaskan

i been meaning to ask... If I were to introduce grasses for browse for my horse. Could I plant Buffalo grass during the rainy season and expect it to survive and grow without water... I could use Ollas and make oasis for the grass. But I hear their roots go very deep.

Or do you have another suggestion

The only other way I can think of is to do hydroponic fodder.

I have a MOUNTAIN of composted horse poo. just need a tractor to extract it.

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

rangeland means that it hasn't been plowed up, that is all native stuff.

The photo is actually of a well managed area, and soon after a rain. That is pretty much the best that that area of the country can ever hope to achieve.

And yes Deb, I think that area must be about 15 inches a year, at least that is what it looks like. Good eye Deb!

@getaclue you must be used to lovely pastureland, or a very wet area of the country. For example, most of the horse country in Kentucky is all pasture land, native stuff has been plowed away and replaced with Kentucky Bluegrass, a giant monoculture of a beautiful deep blue green soft lush grass.

just a good guess. The greenery is very green and there are alot of hard leafy woody plants.

My annual rain is between 6 - 9 inches per year lately. Alot of the desert Lavender have gone dormant. They shed their leaves and fold up their woody stems to conserve their water. Just about all our Lavenders have gone dormant.

Notice how grey the bushes are.

This is typical The yellow are teeny tiny flowers tha bloom after a rain. They are about the size of a pea.

This is actually a picture of my house from my neighbors house the expanse of green are Red Shank All my property. They are growing in a sandy expanse of land created by the stream that runs through the property. Where Red shank grow water is decently close to the surface. But They too are stressed.


deb

 

[tjo804]

Wow Deb,
You have a beautiful piece of land to work with.

I see all that sand and just start drooling!
Here I have mucky clay mess right now.

We do plan to bring in sand but it got put on the back burner for now.

 

[vehve]

Al, Karin is a bit too active of a bunny pen cleaner. So we get a lot of straw that needs to be broken down. And if I don't get the hot box going again, it means there will be a huge pile of straw somewhere in the yard, with bunny poop and pee in it. And thanks to the dogs, it won't be there in spring anymore. So I'd rather have bacteria breaking it down than the dogs puking up straw piles inside the house.

 

[drumstick diva]

Felix, on that note, pee & puke - I will say "goodnight"

 

[drumstick diva]

Beautiful, Perchie

 

[vehve]

Diva, yeah, at that point it's always good to call it a night Sleep tight.

 

[Alaskan]

@Alaskan

i been meaning to ask... If I were to introduce grasses for browse for my horse. Could I plant Buffalo grass during the rainy season and expect it to survive and grow without water... I could use Ollas and make oasis for the grass. But I hear their roots go very deep.

Or do you have another suggestion

The only other way I can think of is to do hydroponic fodder.

I have a MOUNTAIN of composted horse poo. just need a tractor to extract it.

deb

Buffalo Grass is considered a "low water need" grass, when compared to lawn grasses. It is a component of short grass prairie, which is lots more water than you will get from the heavens or want to use from your well to water. It actually wants 12 inches of rain a year at minimum.
:
You need to look at grasses that like growing in "Desert Shrublands" because that is where you are.

Some top choices would be:

Indian Ricegrass, Achnatherum hymenoides

This website below is a long technical paper on all of the pros and cons regarding Indian Ricegrass. If you don't understand anything on the page, just tell me, I am happy to explain.
http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/graminoid/achhym/all.html

http://www.plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/pg_achy.pdf


Quote about Indian Ricegrass:
It grows best in areas that receive 8-14 inches annual precipitation but has been observed to establish and reproduce from seeding in areas with as low as 6 inches annual precipitation. It prefers sandy, coarse textured soils and can also be found on sands, fine sandy loams, silt loams, clay loams, gravelly, rocky and shale soil textures

Another choice is Mesa Dropseed, Sporobolus flexuosus

Mesa Dropseed is a short-lived bunchgrss

Quote about Mesa Dropseed:
Mesa dropseed occurs mainly in dry areas with mean annual precipitation of 12 inches (300 mm) or less; it can survive in areas with as little as 6 to 7 inches (150-180 mm) mean annual precipitation [41,46]. It occurs on well-drained sand, sandy loams, loamy sands and gravelly soils [3,7,15,29]..


Webpage:
http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/graminoid/spofle/all.html


Blue Grama, Bouteloua gracilis

This one is a pain to grow from seed, but with a small plot you might manage. Actually, many of the desirable grasses are very difficult to grow from seed. They persist in an environment by reproducing vegetatively (runners and such things). In order to reproduce by seed, many of the most desirable grasses need two full weeks of damp and cloudy weather, in nice warm temperatures. After they get started, they can be very robust.

Quotes:
Roots of individual blue grama plants generally extend 12 to18 inches (30-46 cm) from the edge of the plant and 3 to 6 feet (0.9-1.8 m) deep [100,111,112,116,147,357]. Blue grama roots may penetrate deeper soil layers [111], and the maximum rooting depth of blue grama is approximately 6.5 feet (2 m) [82,110,116]. and Blue grama generally requires 8 to 15 inches (203-381 mm) of annual precipitation

Webpage:
http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/graminoid/bougra/all.html


It might be, that you already have a good seed bank right there hiding in front of you! I would spread out a one to two inch layer of horse poo, where it is unlikely to get washed away in any rain, and just wait, you might get a whole bunch of good things.

 

[Alaskan]

V, thanks for the explanation!