Les Frijo

In Wisconsin I don't think I could grow very many things without fencing. I suspect the lack of natural predators in my area (wolves, mountain lions) is the main issue. Not much for them to be afraid of most of the year.

Garlic and horseradish doesn't need to be fenced. The rest I keep in a 5 ft welded wire fencing. Kept up with 6 ft t-posts only pounded in partly and done loosely and not straight and put up to be easily taken down and moved. I have not had deer jump this ugly fencing yet. I suspect the key is that I put a bunch of 8 foot or so poles sticking up through the top of the fencing at angles all around. I originally did this for the birds that hunt and keep my garden happy but I think it has the added effect of making the fencing even stranger and they can't figure it out to feel safe jumping over it.

New fruit trees need double fencing until they are at least twice as tall as your average whitetail deer. Even after that is is a good idea to keep some around the trunks or your 20 year old tree can be girdled by a bucks antler rubbing pretty quickly.

When I first started planting tree seedlings I would go and try to mow/scythe/weedwhip the weeds around them trying to "help them out". What I actually did was help the deer find tasty snacks. The weeds can offer some protection for small things if they can't be fenced.

Leaving the fence gate open is another issue. Amazing how much can be wiped out in a night. They sure do make their rounds.

Another strategy...keep planting more!

Hi Tess,

I think so. And document according to their instructions. Here you go...

All About SKIP

Ok here's my list so far. This is the best I could get the note app I was using to spit out. Next will be to get this into INaturalist with photos and latin names and then keep going.

[ ] Alder speckled
[ ] Apple-crab
[ ] Apples various
[ ] Apricot adirondack gold
[ ] Apricot manchurian
 *Aronia
[ ] Ash black
[ ] Ash green
[ ] Ash white
[ ] Aspen quaking
[ ] Basswood
[ ] Birch river
[ ] Birch white
[ ] Birch yellow
[ ] Cedar red
[ ] Cedar white
[ ] Cherry black
[ ] Cherry carmine jewel
[ ] Cherry chokecherry
[ ] Dogwood gray
[ ] Dogwood red osier
[ ] Fir balsam
[ ] Hawthorns ?
[ ] Hazel american
[ ] Hazel beaked
[ ] Ironwood hop hornbeam
[ ] Ironwood hornbeam
[ ] Maple red
[ ] Maple sugar
[ ] Mountain ash
[ ] Ninebark
[ ] Oak red
[ ] Oak red northern pin
[ ] Oak white
[ ] Oak white burr
[ ] Oak white swamp
[ ] Ohio buckeye
[ ] Pear various
[ ] Pine norway?
[ ] Pine red
[ ] Pine scots
[ ] Pine white
[ ] Plum wild American
[ ] Poplars ?
 *Saskatoons wild and cultivated
[ ] Spruce black
[ ] Spruce white
[ ] Tamarack
[ ] Viburnum arrowwood
[ ] Viburnum cranberry
[ ] Viburnum nannyberry
[ ] Willows many kinds?
[ ] Winterberry
[ ] Witchhazel

Doug McEvers wrote:On our farm in 1993 we restored 160 acres back to tallgrass prairie. All of the grass seed used was local source (yellow tag, non-varietal) or an appropriate local cultivar if non-varietal was not available. All of the forb seed was collected from our burned native prairie remnants from the previous growing season. The species present now are so much greater than what we seeded in 1993, some came in from the native remnants interspersed in the 1993 seeding area. 3 orchid species are now present when none were planted originally, took about 13 years for the Small white lady's slipper to appear outside of the native remnants. Given a chance, nature will fill in the blanks, the seed dispersal mechanism for some of the prairie species is quite amazing. Also planted some Bur oak here in the early 1990's, native to this area but not this farm. My goal of having a bit of oak savannah is 35 years in the making !!

Doug I love it!

I've had the same goal and seen some of the same results you mention even though I've been at it about half that long. I'm really just getting started on the native grasses. I didn't realize how abused the land had been until it started to recover.

Cole, Thank you!

This sounds like just what I want. I will download it now.

INaturalist for Android on Google Play

I watched this documentary on competitive birding. I thought it was well done. Funny and weird. Not exactly a permie activity but check it out here if any interest.

LISTERS: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching

It sparked me thinking about making an inventory list of everything that grows on my 40 acres. There's going to be alot of things. I decided to start with just trees and shrubs. Within a few minutes I had over 50 different species of trees and woody shrubberies. That only counts willow once but there are many and I just don't know what they all are yet. Much work ahead.

There seem to be a whole bunch of plant identification and even diagnosis apps out there. I have not used any recently but I can't seem to find anything that would be similar to what the birders use to document and check off their sightings. It would be great to be able to add photos of the actual plants from the property that is being inventoried. I'd like to have the ability to go to any property and do a create a custom inventory of everything growing there. Maybe that could even be a valuable service to someone?

Anyone out there hear of such an app or have other ideas about how this could be organized? Any other features they would like see included?

The bark is weird. I was thinking maybe one of the hickories. I would not have guessed cottonwood but I'm only seeing one photo. It looks like there are 3 more that don't show up for me. Fungi must be in one of the other photos.

I agree completely with leaving it if you can for a snag and habitat if nothing else.

I don't know about the fungi but if you can determine that these are ash trees and have emerald ash borers in your area you may as well take them down and plant something else at this point.

It could help to know where you are but I'm guessing by didn't bloom you mean it didn't leaf out at all this year and you say it had scarce leaves last year. Is this correct? If so, my guess is that it is now dead. Looks like maybe a boxelder or an ash. I don't see the obvious signs of the emerald ash borer that I see around here but if it is an ash that is likely the cause of death. Boxelder are usually pretty weedy and not easy to kill trees.