For the sake of convenience we staged the limbs we cut yesterday on the soybean field west of the windbreak. For obvious reasons those limbs could not stay there.
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| First Goldenrod I have seen blooming. 1670 Growing Degree Days b50. |
Today, I dragged the brush to the north and got it off the farmer's field. That took exactly two hours. Throw in the hour of tilling in the garden and I am a tired puppy.
I promised Mrs ERJ that I would work on the drywall today. We will see if another cup of coffee is sufficient to bring me back to life.
Hinge-cuts
Five years ago "hinge cutting" juvenile trees to create optimum cover for white-tail deer was a huge topic.
The basic strategy was to find a stand of young trees, preferably 6" or less in diameter. Then, five or six feet above ground-level, cut most of the way through the trunk and then push the stem over, leaving a strap of wood-and-bark connecting the top to the roots.
The goal was to create a parking-ramp for deer where they would feel safe and would bed down.
The limitation of this method is finding trees of a suitable size and that were amenable to that kind of treatment. Not all species will "barber-chair" and retain a strap to the roots.
While cutting the Autumn Olive, we ran into a very heavily used deer bedding area. Visualize in your mind, from West-to-East a farm-field, then a row of Autumn Olive planted on 10' centers that runs North/South. Then, 10' or 15' to the east of that row, some hazelnut bushes that are multi-stem and "V" shaped and 15'-to-20' tall. Then 15' east of the hazelnut bushes is a row of apple trees on MM-106 with the lowest branches about 6' above ground and stretching 15'-to-20' in height.
I don't think the apple trees are mandatory. A clump of five-to-eight hazelnut bushes planted 10'-to-15' apart and ringed with Autumn Olive would probably be spiffy. It would probably be advantageous to choose hazelnut varieties (or seedlings) that had large bushes: Grand Traverse, Hall's Hardy Giant, Slate (for example). The "V" shape of the bush and the arching suckers creates a space almost like a Cervid sized Cathedral with arches and flying buttresses.
Another planting at another location that is a magnet for deer and Ringtail Pheasant is a patch of bamboo (probably Phyllostachys aurea). The patch is next to a yard that is used for recreation and is 25' from the house. Presumably, because of the density of the stems and the white-noise of the leaves rustling, the animals bedding in the bamboo feel safe-and-secure.
Bamboo is a dirty word around here. Invasive, spreads like mad and nearly impossible to destroy.
ReplyDeleteIf it grew as a useful fodder plant or construction grade building materials like I saw it in Asia, maybe, IN A Steel ring.
Bamboo is incredibly useful but, as Michael notes, wildly out of control most places I have lived as well.
ReplyDeleteGolden bamboo is more easily top killed in winter than Phyllostachys aureosulcata (yellow groove) or Atrovaginata (incense bamboo). There is always american canebrake which is a true bamboo. all of them are going to run like hell. I know because I grew them for years.
ReplyDeleteBamboo also takes a lot of work. The individual culms (shoots) do not live very long. You need to remove these when the die or your grove become a brown, lifeless looking, impenetrable mass.
ReplyDeleteI think mesquite trees may have that type of bark that allows life to continue after being nearly severed. I've cut branches that droop, but the bark will stubbornly hold to the hold it up. Even vigorous pulling - twisting does not much good - it is tenacious stuff.
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