Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Harvey Ussery <huboxwood@earthlink.net>]

> Strips protected by fence so they will not ever be ever be touched other 
> than what grows through/pass the fence, and plant forage trees like honey 
> locust, mulberries, paw-paws, persimmon and willow on the strips inside the 
> fence.    Any fruit not picked will provide more food for the animals, while 
> the leaves and stems of the willow that make it over will be eaten directly, 
> and all the trees will provide wind and some sun shelter for the animals 
> once grown.
>
> Greg H.


> VERY interesting, Greg. This business of interplanting cover crops and
> trees can get a bit complicated 
>
> paul, tradingpost@riseup.net

Not sure if it's already been mentioned on the site, but in this context 
I recommend J. Russell Smith's TREE CROPS. Smith's sage advice could be 
a life-saver for the way we do agriculture in this country, but I think 
we haven't followed the road to ruin quite far enough yet to be able to 
recognize it. I just finished reading TC, and it has given me a lot of 
ideas for combining trees and pasture, livestock (mixed poultry in my 
case), and other elements in the homestead. Already I am planting 
mulberry and chestnut trees on my pasture. The mulberries are super easy 
to grow and drop a *lot* of fruit when they are in season--free snacks 
for the flock. One of the biggest prob's with growing chestnut is the 
chestnut weevil. Chickens should help control them, both in emergent 
phase in the spring, and when they are going to ground in the fall. As 
for the nuts, any surplus over what we need I plan to feed to the flock.

~Harvey


--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us