Hi, my husband and I just bought property in McKenzie Bridge, and we would like opinions on 2 things, first how to find a test for soil compaction for planting native pasture grasses, and second a reliable source of said grasses for the Eugene area
Background: before we got the land it was logged about a year ago, the slash was recently cleared and burned leaving a flat dirt area of about 2 acres. I am familiar with permies concepts, and our goal is to have some wildlife promoting shrubs and trees with some fruiting trees closer to the house. we are in the very beginning stages of planning, but feeling pressure to get some native seed down to keep the invasives at bay and support birdlife come spring and buy is time to plant other natives. we will not be mowing the grass and may have a chicken tractor down the road but no large animals. it is flat and gets a lot of sun (for the mckenzie valley).
my husband thinks that the equipment compacted the soil to the point of needing to roto-till the top layer so the seed can be successful and we dont waste money on the seed. I think that due to the freeze and thaw this year that it would we a waste of money to till, plus all the negatives of tilling I think if we raked the seed in and then mulched over the top to keep the rain from compacting and washing the seed away that may work. then there is the issue of the rain compacting the soil further.
we both agreed that we need another opinion and some kind of objective field test what is the tolerable level of compaction for a successful grass planting? I hope you can at least direct us to some good local resources/seed sources.
