Converting big lawn to mixed meadow and orchard

We've been thinking about moving out of the city to have more garden space and the opportunity to raise some small animals for eggs, meat, and manure for the garden. After spending a fair amount of time browsing potential properties online, it seems that many of our options involve a house surrounded by a large lawn covering 2-4 acres. It's warm and wet here so grass grows nearly year round; I have no interest in maintaining large lawns. Rather, I'm imagining converting one of these into a mix of garden beds and fruit trees with meadow under and around the trees and in any areas we'd not be using intensively.

My questions:
1. How to convert lawn to meadow at this scale? Can I just stop mowing and hope for the best? I assume I'd need to take a more hands-on approach, but I'm hoping to minimize inputs of time and money. I would prefer a process that doesn't take years, but I recognize that may be incompatible with my low-input wish.
2. What kind of equipment is needed to mow a meadow annually? Would I need to mow more than annually to keep woody vegetation out?
3. There are probably some good books that cover this topic. What can you recommend?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Jake Esselstyn wrote:
3. There are probably some good books that cover this topic. What can you recommend?

Mwahahahaha--you said "book"! Well then, here's my excuse to recommend "Lawns into Meadows: Growing a Regenerative Landscape" by Owen Wormser.   It goes into all those things you're curious about: soil types,  good meadow plants, how to plant them, and meadow maintenance/upkeep. (Useful Q&A section in the back, too!) I bought it when it was first published a year or two ago, because I was captivated by the idea and the description from the publisher (Chelsea Green).

I live on 1/4 acre wooded urban lot, but I have a teeny tiny sun patch where I'm going to have an itsy bitsy meadow this year, which should be fun. I want to help save the pollinators, and I will certainly enjoy giving a very unexpected sight to my neighbors!
                                                                                 

Jake wrote:

[Looking at] large lawn covering 2-4 acres
[Want to have] the opportunity to…raise some small animals
Can I just stop mowing and hope for the best?
What kind of equipment is needed to mow a meadow annually?

Sounds like 2-4, or nearly 5 Acres & A Dream! How about including this thread in the goats forum?

Thanks for the recommendation, Rachel! I'll check this out soon. I had overlooked this book before, thinking it was more of an argument for converting lawns to meadows. Now, I see that it's a how-to manual, which is what I need. I just hope it has some application to larger-scale conversions. I've done some small-scale conversion in my current suburban yard, but can't imagine using that kind of labor-intensive approach at the scale of a couple acres.

Amy Gardener wrote:
How about including this thread in the goats forum?

That's fine with me if they might be useful somehow. I can see them being useful in converting brush or forest to meadow, but I can't picture them helping to convert lawn. That said, I've no experience raising goats.

Thanks for the 5 acres and a dream rec! I'll check it out.

Here is a link to the book:

https://permies.com/wiki/133426/Acres-Dream-Book-Leigh-Tate

Leigh is a member of the forum.

Thanks for the suggestions. Owen Wormser's book answered all my questions.

When I kept sheep in a small winter pen and moved them out in the summer,  the pen grew quickly with plantain and dock.   So it seems sheep/goats CAN be useful vectors for spreading and encouraging some species of plants whose seeds benefit or at least are not harmed by passing through their system.   Overseeding with clover and vetch can be very successful in lawn grass areas as well.  

Heather Staas wrote:When I kept sheep in a small winter pen and moved them out in the summer,  the pen grew quickly with plantain and dock.   So it seems sheep/goats CAN be useful vectors for spreading and encouraging some species of plants whose seeds benefit or at least are not harmed by passing through their system.   Overseeding with clover and vetch can be very successful in lawn grass areas as well.  

Yes that's true. Sheep/goats can be very useful vectors for encouraging lawn grass.

Jake said, " What kind of equipment is needed to mow a meadow annually? Would I need to mow more than annually to keep woody vegetation out?

When we moved from the city to the country, we bought 10 acres that had been used for making hay.

We had cows though we still had to mow that area which was about five acres. This was due to the fact that we did not want mesquite trees to take over the area.

We bought a John Deere tractor since we had almost 10 acres to mow.

For the size of land, you are talking about I would suggest at least a riding lawnmower.

I would suggest you find a local farmer willing to help you. I'd suggest you find out if you can buy mushroom compost which is also sometimes called mushroom manure. Here I'm paying $35 per cubic yard but then he gives me a 10% discount. Delivery is $35. It's possible depending on how much you need to get your dealer to deliver a whole 18 wheeler truck load to your property. He should be willing to give you a good price as he won't handle the product. The delivery would be made to you instead of to him. The easiest way to spread it is with a manure spreader. Hopefully your farmer has one and also has a large tractor with a plow.

I usually dig in 2 inches with my spade and then dig another inch digging in the opposite direction. (north/south instead of east/west as on the first pass).

This will give you a fine start that will reward you with many years of fine gardening. This way when you go to plant a tree you can plant in an "unamended" planting hole and get the benefits of an amended hole. You'd also be on your way to a fine start if you want to no till. I've planted potatoes in soil I amended the previous fall and get wonderful crops of potatoes the following year. And I also grow crops other than root crops or leafy vegetables immediately after digging the mushroom compost in. If you can't find the mushroom compost then I'd look for composted manure at a farm or stable. But in that case have it tested or plant some bean seeds in a pot with soil and some of the manure mixed in.