Hello all! This is my first post under this username. I actually signed up a while ago and never posted til recently under the username jeb2. When I first signed up I had a different email account and now when I finally wanted to post something, I couldn't log on and couldn't figure out why so I just re-registered. Even then it kept telling me that the username, my name, was in use by someone else so I just used my initials thinking there was another Jim Branham on this forum. That is until I logged into my old email account and finally figured out why I couldn't log into the site with my first username. I was logging in under my new email account instead of my old one. I've been studying this site and permaculture for a while and am looking forward to starting an edible forest garden!
I have a couple acres of pasture with a few Oaks on them that are over a couple hundred years old and they are huge. I love those trees but they cast a big shadow across the field. That's ok though, I would never harm those gorgeous trees. The pasture has a problem though. It was once an active oil well site about 50 years ago and there is very old solidified crude oil on top of the soil and just under it, hard as rock and varying from just a couple inches to about a foot thick. I'm working on what to do about that. It covers maybe a half acre in the pasture. The pasture is what I want to turn into an edible forest garden along with a natural swimming pond to raise fish. The pond is going to be tough because the soil is sandy and porous. I also think honey bees would do well here but my family is afraid of bees, not allergic, just afraid of. We will see.
Outside of the pasture is another couple acres that the home my parents, my wife and I live in. We have a some more huge oaks in front there too, I will learn how to use those acorns! Out in the back yard is a pear tree, an apple tree, a tart cherry tree, and a couple peach trees that all produce fruit. We just planted some pecan trees this year too. There are also a couple productive black walnut trees far enough away in the side yard from the fruit trees to not interfere with them.
The property runs northeast to southwest, slightly sloping to the east and the wind mostly comes in from the north, sometimes northeast, other times northwest. Behind us to the north is all farmers fields so we get some real strong gust coming in from the field. I germinated a bunch of acorns and planted a about a thousand of them. The property is about 120 paces deep and about 260 paces long. I'm hoping to line the edge with some oaks to block the wind from the fields around us on 3 sides. The front runs along a rural hiway. I may never see those oaks get very big because I'm 50 but I want to line the property with them anyway. Hopefully come spring I'll have enough. I think I'll do some shorter faster growing trees in front along the hiway.
Any ideas or tips on how to accomplish all, this especially what to do about the crude oil problem is greatly appreciated.
Here is a link to a jeb2 post about the oil.
https://permies.com/t/18182/earthworks/Old-oil-drill-pump-site#155729
