From planted tree field to berry garden ❤

I want to share this as encouragement, because I have done everything by hand, alone, and as an almost 60 year old woman.

So first I hired a logger to clear some forest to make space for growing food.
They left lots of debris on the ground...
The ground had a foot of snow as I started dragging all the logs and braches into a dead hedge.

The dead hedge turned out quite charming, it fits into the surroundings really nicely.
As soon as I was finished, I noticed birds trotting there aned several have made their nest there!

But I was left with evenly spaced rows of tree stumps. The sight was a bit depressing.

I ordered 5 truckloads of peat. Inoculated barrels of biochar. Collected ash. And spread the mixture to the pretty lousy packed clay, where at places even dandelions did not grow.

The layer was thick enough to hide the "$@₩*$" stumps!

The smell was rich, I can tell you

I ordered 200 berry bushes. This is Northern Europe, so the selection is limited. Saskatoon, Honeyberry, raspberry, boysenberry, cloudberry.

There is a swale in the middle of the field. On the other side I planted 50 fruit trees. Most of them are age old local varieties.
10 plums
20 cherries
20 apples (summer, autumn and winter varieties)

Under the fruit trees, I sowed a meadow mix. I thought there should be some mycorrizhae left from the time the area was a planted tree yard.

Under the berry bushes, I sowed white clover.

Wow, that’s quite the project! I bet it’ll be amazingly productive in a couple of years. Is the dead-hedge enough to keep browsers like deer out? And is this a project to generate produce for sale?

Girl, I couldn't be a bigger fan of yours.  What you've done is nothing short of amazing.  The hubby and I have 60 acres of young trees, mostly junk, that we want to clear partially and leave the rest for hunting.  I'd like to have 5 acres for a berry orchard with blueberries and blackberries.  I'm 64 and was feeling like I was too old to start such a venture but we've decided to keep moving forward with our plans as long as we can.  This is an inspiration for me.  If you can do this alone, surely the two of us can do it.  Please come back and give us an update with pictures as it continues to grow.