Alexander Long

I have permanent mounded garden beds and fields and pastures here in previous tobacco/grazing land in Central NC. I handle the two spaces differently because it’s hard to mulch 120 acres no matter how many loads Asplundh brings you.

In the gardens there’s two types of amendments: good and bad. Anything I think is good gets put on top. If you don’t mix it in it’s hard to do damage: mulch, compost, hay (no persistent broadleaf sprayed stuff - that sets you way back), ash, charcoal, whatever. Every year gets better and better. Just be patient and go for the small wins. Keep it fun so you keep it up and don’t be discouraged if some years some things fail. I don’t overreact with pests or deficiencies and usually they correct themself.

Big scale is so different, spread as much good stuff as you can, but also don’t be afraid to do a few applications of P K when you get started. Bring some levels back up and then stop “mining” the soil, and it starts to cycle again. Keep in mind how abused most land currently is. You’re not starting from Step 1, you’re at Step -100.

Another thing I want to mention is very strategic sub soiling. You can do it wrong but if you do it right it does so much good. It’s a good alternative to swales if you don’t want to spend the rest of your life making turns on a tractor.

Y’all are loving Mother Nature and bringing life back into the world. Just keep going!

Fiskars makes an upright weed puller that I use. It is very effective for thistles. It has four teeth at the bottom. You step on it, and then bend it back to clamp and pull.

A little one won’t work. Needs to be as big as the Fiskars or bigger.

Get a log, telephone pole, or section of railroad track and attach eye-bolts to both ends. Hook that up to a tractor and just drag it down. The heavier the better if you want it to stay down. If you don’t have a tractor you can pull it with a truck. Super cheap and effective.

Hello,

We have four ponds on our 53 acres here in central NC (zone 7b).  I have attached pictures of the two largest (about 1.5 acres and 1 acre respectively for the one with the algae bloom).  When I bought this small farm a bit over a year ago everything had been neglected for about a decade.  There are a lot of sweet gums here, and it took some months to selectively clear large stretches along the pond edges.  Since then, the wild blackberries, sweet gums, and various thorny vines have come back with a vengeance.  Maintenance right now involves regular trimming, which takes a lot of time and feels like a lost cause.

I am tremendously inspired by Sepp Holzer's farms and would like to put in more ponds, but my questions are about their maintenance:

How does he keep the bank growth low and accessible?  Are there particular plant species like cattails I should be looking at in this zone?
How does he keep his ponds from silting in, particularly with the heavy vegetation surrounding them (must drop tons of debris)?

Locals here seem to be of the consensus that the only option is draining regularly and then bringing in a dozer to fix up the banks and clear the silt.  It's expensive and I really hate to do that to the pond-ecosystems.  We've looked into dredging but that is way too expensive, particularly if we were to add even more ponds.

Your thoughts or expertise are much appreciated.