Pastures - A Field of Diverse Grasses & Herbs

Liz Crain of Leafhopper Farm describes how she transformed a huge patch of blackberry bushes into a diverse pasture of diverse herbs and grasses using goats and pigs.

ANIMALS RECOVERING THE LAND

This field was once completely overgrown with blackberry bushes above a human's head. The area was able to be reclaimed as fertile land once again after 2 years of Goats and Pigs living and feeding in the area. It is now a valuable clearing which can be used for crop development.

PLANTING COVER CROPS

Winter Rye was planted as a cover crop to help the space recover from being turned into a mud pit by the Goats and Pigs. This can be cut in the late Summer and left to dry on fence posts and used to feed the Goats in the WInter. If you forget to pull it in before it rains you can still use it as good compost material.

PLANT EXPERIMENTATION

Now that the area is well fenced and protected the plan is to cultivate small young medicines and other crops to see what works in this soil.
Hazelnut was planted by cutting off a shoot from elsewhere and planting it here. The goal is to have a hedgerow of nutbearing trees to assist in developing the understory forest.
Herb Roberts, also known as Stinky Bob, is not for eating but can be used as a medicine, or can be rolled and mushed up and put on the skin as a bug repelent.
Corn survived in this pasture on its own all Summer without watering through a record long drought. This tells us that the soil is rich in nitrogen and is able to maintain moisture well.
Evergreen huckleberry love shade and old rotting wood. Placing the under sticks can help protect them from deer and give them organic material as fertilizer

DIRECTING AND STORING MOISTURE

Terraces and Mounds were developed to hold the water in flowing from higher ground. Banks were created using sod on contour across the hillside to direct the flow of water across as much area as possible as it moves downhill.
Pigs like to wallow and dig pits on their own. We dug those even deeper at the bottom of the hill to retain water at the end of its journey downhill. At the end of a Summer with no rain the soil down here is full of moisture, and is an excellent spot to plant new crops.
Controlling the moisture in this way allows for crops to thrive for long periods without rain or manual watering, and can save a lot of money by removing the need for an irrigation system.

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