Reviving and Diversifying and old cleared lot for future homestead (Seed order Help)

        Hello Everyone,
  long time reader first time poster here. my wife and I secured our land this past October in pursuit of following our dream of building a family farm and homestead we have had our hands full clearing out old buildings and cutting the brush back from the abandoned property. if your interested in our journey you can look up our Facebook page .  " RHFarmstead the Russ Herron Family Farm and homestead " we are currently planning our third family work trip to the property and being a little over 600miles from or current residence its been very interesting journey. Sense securing the property we have moved out of our rental and bought a travel trailer which we are currently living in at my in laws. With two 9-10 year old boys this has been a very interesting but rewarding endeavor.  

  I plan to sow some seed at the end of this month on my next trip and early next spring to start getting my little bit of "pasture" into a better condition to eventually run chicken tractors and rabbit tractors on. As well as eventually rotational grazing a couple goats and hogs here and there. At the moment the land will be enjoyed by the local wild life as I have an arrangement with a neighbor to brush cut it every three months or so. I explained to hime I'm more interested in building soil than having a perfectly manicured lot.

 I will not be moving to this property till the end of the next school year as I only want to transfer my kids schools once so this seeding is pregame as to what we will do in the future how ever id like to establish a little diversity. this area is maybe 3 acres and will grow as I continue to work the property. Our Property is zone 8A and its about 5.5 acres total. everything that is growing now is pretty much indigenous to eastern river coastal NC

My seed order now consists of:

5# Inoculated dutch White clover
5# chicory
5# appin turnip

All of witch I'm sure the local deer population will enjoy and I have no problem, with because I very much enjoy venison in the freezer.

My question to all of you is there anything else I should add to this order maybe some perennial rye or some alfalfa ?
any advice at all will be greatly appreciated.

Any seed that I don't seed at the end of this month may be sown late fall or early spring next year it will not got to waste and will be stored in an appropriate manner.

          Thanks,
               RHFarmstead

I second the vote for alfalfa (nitrogen fixing, deep roots to break up subsoil, then chop and drop for mulch) but it would probably shade out the other plants listed if scattered in too thick of ratio.

Another common soil preparation plant mentioned on this site is Daikon Radish - easy to grow, cheap seed, and the long thick roots will break up the soil; leave the root to die after the season and you've just put tons of organic matter in your soil.

Dustin Rhodes wrote:I second the vote for alfalfa (nitrogen fixing, deep roots to break up subsoil, then chop and drop for mulch) but it would probably shade out the other plants listed if scattered in too thick of ratio.

Another common soil preparation plant mentioned on this site is Daikon Radish - easy to grow, cheap seed, and the long thick roots will break up the soil; leave the root to die after the season and you've just put tons of organic matter in your soil.

 Dustin,
     Thanks for your response. I had contemplated daikon radishes in my mix at one time and I'm not sure why I didn't mention them in my OP. I really appreciate you bringing them back to mind as they will make a lovely addition to this mix  so ill go ahead and add the radishes and the Alfalfa to the seed order.

I will likely sow some things in places I don't others and some things heavier in certain areas than others.  If anyone has any recommendations on any of the seeds/plants that are mentioned above or maybe something we didn't mention that maybe we should be thinking about your thoughts and comments will be greatly appreciated.

                             Thanks
                                   RHFarmstead

Diakon sell well at farmers markets, the leaves and seedpods are delicious and it self seeds to some extent.

I grow jchokes for soil building, food and rabbit fodder.
If you get pigs ,they reportedly will root them up.
Other wise I consider them to be permanent additions to the land.
To feed human and wildlife alike, consider hazelnuts,dwarf chinkapin oak, american persimmon mulberry, plums.
You can have shade and fuel and food in your fields and pasture.
Anything that will grow from a cutting, like willow for example, could be great.

Grape vines are another winner in my book, for shade, fodder and food.
Perennials will need protection from deer for a while.
Most root crops seem to self sow, and they offer multiple yeilds.

A pond could be a great, kid friendly project that would just improve between visits.

I dont think its very common to grow alfalfa as far south as you are but its worth a shot, its a great plant. Id add red clover, sanfoin,trefoil and a vetch. See what works. But also im not sure if there common as far south as you are Comfrey.

Thanks for all the responses after we get established on our property I will be definitely looking at growing shrubs and trees alike to Deversify what we and the animals can use.

I salvaged a bucket of thornless blackberry runners from my rental before we moved out. altogether about 9 surrvived and are thriving. I plan on planting them on the property when we go at the end of the month.

I also will be scavenging all the nurseries for any discounted fruit trees or bushes that need a good home while we are in town main goal will be getting to know the nurseries that  we have to work with in our area.

I really appreciate the advice , and as I get further established on the property will be adding more and more in the form of diversity to the property.

             Thanks again
                     RHFarmstead

Placed my seed order . I also went ahead and ordered myself a meadow creature Broadfork to start working sections of my land with.

I picked up :

5# Appin turnip
5# inoculated Dutch clover
5# chicory
5# daikon radish
3# alfalfa

In the future i will add some more things into the mix this is kinda most likely just going to be enjoyed by the local deer population for a while . Just maybe it will hopefully improve the quality of our land a bit.

I went with the 16” meadow creature if in the future I decide I want a smaller one I’ll purchase then , but I’m a fairly strong fella and I want some deep airaition at the moment.

I still need to pick up a decent shoulder bag broadcast seeder any advice on a particular brand or model would be greatly appreciated!

       Thanks again for any and all advice !
                  RHFarmstead

    All my seed has arrived as well as my seeder I ended up ordering the Earthway 2750 hand operated bag spreader/seeder. if anyone that owns this same spreader has any tip or tricks on its operation please chime in. I'm still open to different plants and things I should be looking at adding to our pasture and pine forrest. this is just the beginning of changing our property.

My broad fork should be here before the middle of next week  looking forward to getting my hands on that thing it looks to be a serious tool.

                                        Thanks again for all the previous advice.
                                                          RHFarmstead

             

  Well yesterday we made the 630 mile trip to North Carolina from Georgia . We spent last night and today catching up with my Father and Step Mother.  

Bright and early tomorrow morning we will be headed to the farm for a bit of work and play. I’m very anxious as I have not seen our property since the first week of April.

A lot can change in one growing season. The last Work trip my wife and I “without the kids” tent camped on the property with no electricity or running water for six days putting in 10 hour work days the whole time.

Planning this trip with the kids we new it would be to hot for that type of endeavor.

I intend to weedeat heavily around all of my buildings and put down either fabric or plastic around them To avoid having hire someone to come out and weedeat While I’m away. My neighbor brush cuts the lot every few months. I also intend on planting as much if not all of this seed as I can as well as  these blackberries before I leave.

I only have three work days planned on this trip as we are taking the kids to the OBX for two days and out on the Chesapeake bay to do some fishing one day.

I guess I better put my game face on. Beacause the next week is about to be a busy one.

On that note I really should quit playing around on the internet and get some sleep.

       “Cheers” here’s to looking forward to putting my hands in my dirt tomorrow. I can’t wait to make this a full time thing.
            RHFarmstead

This weather is not conducive of a productive work trip.

Despite being rained out a few days we managed to over seed some of the property ”I probably could take back twice to three times the seed I took on this trip“

We also managed to plant all of our blackberries. Hopefully they all survive.

We made it out to the OBX for a beach day we even had a rather unsuccessful day fishing on the Chesapeake bay.  We even took a little paddle down little river .

We are headed back to ga for a while.  Until next time NC.
                      RHFarmstead

Always frustrating when you have a set time frame and the weather ignores your plans! Glad you and the family were able to get some time for fun along with the work.

Safe travels home.

Hello everyone. It’s been a while sense I started this thread. Since we have committed to moving our family 600 miles to our property here and eastern NC . We have started a small flick of laying hens with one rousted that we rotational pasture . And have started a few vegetable gardens. As we continue to settle in I bring myself back to the question of how to improve the pasture for our current Hens as well as future inhabitants. Im thinking of buying a few kunekune feeders. To grow out to see if kunekunes are the pig bread we would like to breed in the future.

In my thoughts about improving our pasture I found myself coming back to my post here on permies to read this thread and regain the information everyone shared with me when I first began this adventure.

I figured while I was here I’d share some photos and give everyone a update on our progress.

If anyone has any additional information on pasture seed for livestock forage for pigs and chickens it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for all your advice when I first started this thread.

Nice pics, looks great! People around here appreciate how much work it took to get this far.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Nice pics, looks great! People around here appreciate how much work it took to get this far.

Thanks I appreciate that I often get discouraged and forget how far we have come.

This is a picture of how the property looked the day we decided we where going to take stewardship of it.

NatureSeed - Atlantic transitional poultry pasture seed

this company formulates pasture blends by usage and by growing region - might be worth a try?