We have a pasture, just under 1/4 acre, that has been used by
chickens for the last five years. About 2 dozen
chickens, but they have long since striped the entire thing of anything green. Now we have fewer
chickens, so they are moving to a smaller pasture. Can you help brainstorm some ideas of what to do with this pasture next?
It's on a west facing slope with a grade of 7 to 10 % (If I understand how to calculate grade correctly - basically it's quite slanted). It's longer west to east then north to south. The main road is on the West side of the pasture. A few blackberries to the south, but most of it is in full sun from about 7am in the summer and from 11am in the winter. It's well fenced with 8 foot high game
fence, so no need to worry about the dear getting at what I plant. The soil is basically a crust of chicken poo overtop of glacial gravel deposit. It's well drained.
We already have a great many fruit
trees on the property, so we don't really need to anymore of them. Grapes and/or nut trees are high on our list of possibilities.
Whatever we choose has to be able to withstand 6 months of no rain in the summer, and 6 months of rain in the winter. We are officially zone 9a, but in actuality, I would say our microclime is more like an 8. For summer, it usually starts May 1st, and hovers between 25 to 35 degrees C, daytime high, and 10 or less degrees C nighttime. For winter, usual high is between 8 to 12 C and nighttime lows about 2 to -2, although there is usually a cold spell in Jan or Feb where we have two weeks of freeze. Although it doesn't rain in the summer (usually) there is always a heavy dew overnight. The pasture I'm looking at is probably the hottest and coldest part of the farm, as it's one of the few places with very little tree cover.
Some moving of the
land is possible, like a few shallow swells, but whatever we choose needs to be easy to mow.
Requirements for what we put in the pasture
-no
irrigation is possible
-something we like to eat/use (very subjective, and probably the most difficult requirement)
-minimal care, ie, maybe maintanance, three or four times a year, plus harvest.
-minimal land maintenance - ie, very little or nil
lawn mowing
-possible to put the chickens back there after the plants are established
-maybe possible to put the sheep in there a little bit
-looks good according to urban standards (because
city people drive by all the time)
-has good perceived value for when the property goes up for sale
-requires minimal cost of infrastructure
-minimal cost to acquire the plants (aka, I can buy one plant now and take cuttings)
-a crop we can easily
sell the excess
-would
be nice if it had more than one use, like walnuts are good for
wood as well as nuts
If it's a crop to sell, than it needs to be something that people already know, but don't realize grows well locally. Again, another subjective criteria. Like almonds, they (apparently) grow well here, but no one bothers to grow them.
We won't be able to plant anything in the pasture until late Oct, when the rains start, but we can prepare now.
One idea I was thinking was grapes. They are yummy, we can make wine out of them, they apparently grow well. I can buy one good grape vine now and plant it somewhere where I can baby it. In the mean time take cuttings from my other grape plant that is hardy in our weather, and produces excessive amounts of not very pleasant grapes. Graft the good grape onto the established cuttings, and make a little vineyard. Cost for the plants, about $50 for the nice grape.
There are a few problems with growing grapes. One, we have no irrigation, so if they don't establish themselves in the first winter, we are going to have a vineyard of ugly dead vines. Second, the popular opinion is that wine made from locally grown grapes tastes terrible - no one tells me why this is true, but I suspect maybe they aren't growing a grape that is suited to our clime. Third, even if I make my own posts from the woodlot, the price of the wire is still beyond what we can put into this
project. And last, vineyards and wineries are a dime a dozen in these parts, which makes us nothing special, which makes it hard to sell our excess.
So, then there are almonds... almonds are tasty and apparently grow well here. I don't know where to source
local almond trees or why no one grows them here anymore.
Walnuts are good, the wood is valuable, a few people grow and sell the nuts, but not many. May require better water needs than this pasture provides.
Hazelnuts are nice. Tasty treat, good source of nutrition. Can double as coppiced wood, but not great for selling the property as coppiced trees are very unpopular.
Anyway, that's as far as we've gotten brainstorming for this project.
I think the most important aspect of this project is perception. It has to fit to the idea that urbanites have of farming. People here feel very entitled to the local farmland - so much so that they will call the authorities if they see something that does not prescribe to their ideal. Or like the time when someone decided that 1/4 acre was too small an area for two dozen chickens, so they opened all our gates, and we lost most of our chickens on the highway. So perception is paramount.
Second most important is usefulness. Something we can and will use.
Any ideas or inspiration you could suggest for this pasture?
