Drew Newitt

Our spot has a bunch of showy goldenrod growing in a weedy manner, and my grassland researcher friend theorizes it’s because showy goldenrod evolved around our area. True? What do I know! In any case, it’s a beautiful late-season treat, and the best show our little prairie puts on all year. I love it!

These are all great ideas, thank you all! I'm going to steer away from planting more trees just because I don't want to have to restrategize opening up sunlight and such. Because it's in a pretty undisturbed creek area (I'm converting a relatively small part of a fern monoculture in an attempt to transition that area to more native plants) I want to avoid things like rhubarb or hostas, though I'm planning to try a second, more cultivated camas patch next year that these will thrive in.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm wondering if Sochan (Cutleaf Coneflower) might be a good fit, if I can get enough sun. I can harvest the spring greens, which will set it back a little in timing at least, and it won't compete with the Camas as much as it starts to fill out in the summer. Seems like the roots shouldn't compete too much. I'll have a second yield in the fall (according to Sam Thayer, I've only had the spring greens). Virginia waterleaf would fit great here, too--I'll need to do some research on how it grows. I've got a good bit of seed. I'm wondering, too, if a couple weeded areas of ground nut would be good, though I don't know how that performs as a ground cover. It's already growing there, just not thriving with the fern canopy.

Two other options I found are our native stinging nettle (Urtica gracilis), which could be an additional spring green to push back until the camas starts to fade, and then wood nettle (Laportea Canadensis), which, as I understand it, is a later spring/summer green. I think that one could be an alternative to the Sochan, if the camas bed covers differing shade levels.

Hi y'all,

I'm going to plant around 140 Atlantic Camas bulbs (Camassia scilloides) in a flatter area near a creek to try and start a sustained population. From what I understand, it'll occupy a spring ephemeral niche in a dappled sunlight area. Since camas will go dormant by the summer, does anyone have suggestions for companion plants that can occupy the space left behind when the camas goes dormant? It seems like there are options for ornamentals/pollinator plants, but I'd love to find a few different native plants with multiple functions. We're going to try a similar thing with Virginia Bluebells.

If anyone's ever done something like this with camas, I'd love to hear about your experience as well.

Thanks!
Drew

Blue Ridge/Piedmont VA, zone 7a/b.

Hey all,

Tests came back with 5 to 10 times the EPA recommended residential level of Chromium(VI) in the soil, so we've terminated the contract. Thanks everyone! Be back with more soon.

Drew

Let me also give some more information, cuz I could probably use some humbling on my plan anyways. The plot is 58 acres, around half of it is an old-growth prairie remnant that's never been plowed. I'm not gonna touch that, but we are going to start burning it again. This is filled with tons of medicinals and edibles that'll love the fire, and a few invasives that can't dominate the mafic soil anyways that'll hate getting burnt to a crisp. And, of course, the great grassland/savanna enemy: trees. There's some post oak, blackjack oak, and short leaf pine that'll create a savanna once the burn regime is established, but the sycamore and tulip tree will die. A ton of edible and useful shrubs will also benefit from the fire. It was all pine when it was timbered eleven years ago, and wasn't replanted for timber. I dk if there's like, a landscaping tree planting or something or if they just let it start to return to forest.

After the prairie, there's more level-ish flat areas with various things beyond what seems to be the disturbance line. Right now, the plan is to burn this too and see if anything pops up from the seed bed, and then start experimenting with either burns and periodic grazing or with permaculture and controlled burns. This soil is deeper, in general, but there are hardpan vernal pools too.

Then, there's a two terraced cliff thing, constructed out of mine boulders and finished at least 80 years ago. This has thin soil on top of it, then it's made of rocks. I've wondered if anything's possible here, but it's likely not.

The soil might be too challenging---gotta have the whole system to work. But it's got so many other cool things, so I haven't given up quite yet.

Sounds interesting, Dane---I went down the remediation research hole but ran into a big problem, which is that it isn't pollution that's the reason for the chromium, or not primarily. Any harmful and available heavy metals would have mostly leached away in the 80 years since the quarry shut down. So at least part of the chromium is going to be because of the actual bedrock that formed the soil, which seems unfixable. We'll do some more thinking about it, but it might be really hard to pull off. I'm interested tho, if remediation seems necessary. But I think I'm more interested in whether or not organic matter can support trees in soil that varies from hardpan to about 16-18 inches of Cr(III)-high soil on top of the world's finest, most impermeable clay lol

Hey Dane,

I'll shoot you a line if we bail on the purchase. In all honesty, it's worth just the look. It's got an old growth prairie root/seed bed on it, and from what I understand these are poorly understood but potentially immortal. It's truly such a sick piece of land.

The 'what' question is really a great one. There's a lot of soapstone quarries here in this county. Some of them are on private land, used for swimming. People'll build houses around them and gardens around them, but obviously the geography of each spot is gonna be radically different. There's also a 40 acre quarry garden nearby, with a whole suite of rare and endemic flora on ultramafic soil/rock.

My goals for this property would be a house, food forest and garden, hopefully enough to survive off of, and then to continue to cultivate the land through burning. I've grown pretty attached to east coast grasslands restoration and conservation, and would love to be a part of an ecosystem that welcomes a clear niche for humans.

Good Q about the water! There's no well, so I dk how we'd test that water. But the quarry water is fine, all the heavy metal contamination is sunk to the bottom. As for real water tests, we'll have to wait until after the study period.

Hey Eino,

Thanks for all this---it's super exciting to hear about the biochar, because most if not all of the property will be under a prescribed burn regime. This might do the exact thing you're talking about across the land every time we burn.

If we buy the property, we can definitely test the plant materials for chromium, but unfortunately our study period is starting to wrap up. We might be able to extend it again, but we've got some time constraints.

I agree, the well water is another big issue. It doesn't seem like chromium accumulation happens through ingestion, really, but water is the real problem. Thankfully, we can definitely do rainwater collection. It's also got two quarries on it filled with water, and the heavy metals in that water will be wayyyyyyy down on the bottom. But the clay subsoil is also limited our septic options. I'm planning on compost toilets anyways, but at least for the present moment this is all prodding the part of me that wants to be safe and at least care a little about resale value. I dk! It's got so many other great things we won't find elsewhere, and I hope we can find a way to resolve these challenges.

I know Nancy, this piece of land has an extraordinary set up: covered in native edibles and wildflowers, it's a fire-loving prairie with sections of pine/post oak/blackjack oak savanna. It's got 3 sources of water, south facing slope, covered in serviceberry, hazelnut, dogwood, willow, hackberry, plums, apples, cherries, viburnum trees, and redbud, just to name a few.

If it's Cr(VI) we're out, nobody should live on this piece of land. We're probably out anyways. Here's my reasoning as to why it might be Cr(III), though without the actual results this is speculation. However, I asked the geologist to look for many other heavy metals and pollutants and he noted none other than the chromium, which--in addition to the fact that mafic and ultramafic rock weathers Cr(III), leads me to believe it's more a by-product of the bedrock than of industrial pollution. Additionally, since Cr(VI) is water soluble and Cr(III) less so, both the geologist and ecologist I went out there with suggested that Cr(VI) would be leached out after 80 years of no soapstone mining. Idk, this is in part coping and in part hoping. It's such a cool piece of land, but I am not a geologist or a chemist or an expert on these things.

Most of the research I'm seeing focuses on reducing Cr(VI) to Cr(III) before its ingested or absorbed by humans. Let's just say, for the sake of dreaming while waiting on real results, that it's all Cr(III). I understand Cr(III) is not readily absorbed and not easily available, but can be in certain leafy greens (esp. brassicas) and in roots. What effect would raised beds have? Does anyone have an idea as to whether or not this will effect tree crops? I imagine this soil will extend the amount of time it takes for a tree to begin fruiting.

In any case, this plot might not work. Lots of rocks, lots of marl clay subsoil. Which sucks cuz it's almost already a food forest (or food savannah/prairie). Not so, I suppose, if that food is poisoned.