Meridie Fricker wrote:Hi all,
My neighbour has a commercial distiller visiting his property to process thousands of Eucalyptus trees to make Eucalyptus oil. We have a loader, access to trucks and other large machinery - and a large food forest needing many metres of paths..... Can I use this byproduct/waste as paths through my future food forest and other areas where weed free paths are required? I intend to use spoilt hay, sheep manure and chop + drop as mulch close to plants, but would like to mulch the paths with the Eucalyptus.
Before you suggest I’d be better off getting the local tree loppers to deliver, I’m hundreds of kilometres from these services....
I’d be nervous walking through/harvesting/pruning in my future food forest without clear wide paths as we have the most venomous snakes and spiders on the planet sharing our home (I’ve disturbed several red back spiders in the last week and encountered a couple of 2-3 metre snakes in the paved verandah/carport/pergola area surrounding the house.)
This bounty of low cost mulch on our door step could be manna from heaven.... or a complete disaster for our food forest. Conflicting reports on the internet...
Not sure what species of Eucalypts are being distilled, but I know they’re a mixed bag.....
Any help or advice appreciated!
Michael Cox wrote:Bede - swales are not really pasture systems. They are designed to collect and concentrate moisture in the deeper soil where tree roots can access it in the dry season. From what I have studies Savory style rotational grazing is one of the best way to improve pasture; over time the concentration of soil organic matter increases, so the water retention capacity of the soil increases over huge areas so grass growth improves.
If you want to integrate tree crops in your pastures then swales are very helpful - this might be to provide shade, windbrakes, tree fodder for droughts, fruit and nuts etc...
[caveat - they may be appropriate in pasture systems if you have torrential rainfall and substantial surface run-off, but my experience of pasture land is that surface run off is unusual as the grass slows and helps infiltrate surface water]