Steps to take on my New Land - Advice?

[davep]

Check for spots where frost gathers. Plant your least hardy perennials well away from these areas. Also, some kind of protection from the east for these trees will help, as generally it isn't the cold that kills them but the rapid reheating once the sun comes up.

[autonomous]

Thanks for the advice. Lots of useful stuff. Does anyone have any ideas for using my marshy meadow? Grass and weeds grow there, but not trees, as it doesn't have sufficient drainage. It does, however, get plenty of sun. I'm wondering if there would be some kind of berry or bramble that might thrive in that environment.

Depending on the watershed characteristics, the marsh area could become a highly productive garden area:

Often referred to as "floating gardens," chinampas were artificial islands that usually measured roughly 30 × 2.5 m (98 × 8.2 ft), although they were sometimes longer. They were used by the ancient Aztec Indians. They were created by staking out the shallow lake bed and then fencing in the rectangle with wattle. The fenced-off area was then layered with mud, lake sediment, and decaying vegetation, eventually bringing it above the level of the lake.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinampa

I would try making an experimental raised bed in the marshland following the methods of constructing a chinampa.

Q: Do you have any structures on the land now, or a trailer?

[vtsnowedin]

Check for spots where frost gathers. Plant your least hardy perennials well away from these areas. Also, some kind of protection from the east for these trees will help, as generally it isn't the cold that kills them but the rapid reheating once the sun comes up.

Dave !! It gets 40 below here and the frost gathers on the inside of the house windows. In the Kingdom four feet of snow on the ground on the first of March is considered normal. The only perennials that make it here are asparagus, rhubarb and witch grass. I have daffodils in full bloom today right on schedule.

[Loki]

Thanks for the advice. Lots of useful stuff. Does anyone have any ideas for using my marshy meadow? Grass and weeds grow there, but not trees, as it doesn't have sufficient drainage. It does, however, get plenty of sun. I'm wondering if there would be some kind of berry or bramble that might thrive in that environment.

As I said earlier, ducks. If there aren't shrubs there now, any you plant aren't likely to survive, except maybe cranberries.

[Revi]

On the marshy area I would plant cedar. We have a marshy area on our woodlot and we planted about 100 cedar saplings about 8 years ago. They have emerged from the undergrowth and seem to be doing fine. We are about 300 miles east of you and about the same climate. We have a small maple syrup operation. We started with about 100 tappable trees and are now at around 300. If you have time you can do all sorts of things with your land. We cut off the popple and got a check. It helped out with buying a bigger evaporator. Popple is really heavy. I would suggest getting someone with a tractor or a skidder. Another thing we did was thinning. We used the thinnings to feed the evap. We use a DR powerwagon to get wood out. It works really well, and it's not that expensive. It's in this youtube movie about our sugaring operation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISbkO-NKA9o

[pstarr]

I watched some of the movie. It's kind of sad. Those sugar maples are sticks. These nice liberls steal the sugar and there is nothing left over for the trees. We are so fubar.

[PrestonSturges]

That marshy meadow might be an old beaver pond, which would be easy to drain and leave fertile soil.

[davep]

Check for spots where frost gathers. Plant your least hardy perennials well away from these areas. Also, some kind of protection from the east for these trees will help, as generally it isn't the cold that kills them but the rapid reheating once the sun comes up.

Dave !! It gets 40 below here and the frost gathers on the inside of the house windows. In the Kingdom four feet of snow on the ground on the first of March is considered normal. The only perennials that make it here are asparagus, rhubarb and witch grass. I have daffodils in full bloom today right on schedule.

Ouch! That's way outside my domain of knowledge. I guess you could build a huge orangery

[vtsnowedin]

Ouch! That's way outside my domain of knowledge. I guess you could build a huge orangery

No we could build a small orangery/greenhouse on the south side of the house and heat it with waste heat from the wood stove. Then grow crops outside between May30th. and Sept 15th. that will mature in that time if started in the green house or have a 90 day seed to harvest maturity. You have to work with what mother nature gives you as fighting mother nature is a sure loser.

[Revi]

I watched some of the movie. It's kind of sad. Those sugar maples are sticks. These nice liberls steal the sugar and there is nothing left over for the trees. We are so fubar.

Thanks for the review Pstarr. We have over 300 trees that are over 10" diameter that we tap.
Am I one of the nice liberls? The deal we make with the trees is to cut out a lot of the competition in exchange for some of their sap every spring. It's working out well for both us and the trees so far.

[KingM]

Q: Do you have any structures on the land now, or a trailer?

Yes, my house is here. The last few years have been really good for us financially, and I've been trying to save money and teach myself some skills both for personal interest and as a hedge against a potentially nasty future. I go back and forth between moderately doomerish and moderately optimistic, but my naturally cautious nature says to get prepared while continuing to make hay while the sun shines.

[vtsnowedin]

I go back and forth between moderately doomerish and moderately optimistic, but my naturally cautious nature says to get prepared while continuing to make hay while the sun shines.

+1

[Revi]

Not a bad idea to have a place that can produce something whatever happens. About the cedars I suggested, they make great fence posts and you can put some cedar into wreathes and things,

[Evltre]

I go back and forth between moderately doomerish and moderately optimistic, but my naturally cautious nature says to get prepared while continuing to make hay while the sun shines.

Yes - I absolutely agree. And the nice thing is aside from helping with "prepping" so to speak our new life style means we live cheaper, eat better and are generally healthier and happier than we were *before* So it's really a win win situation!

[pstarr]

I watched some of the movie. It's kind of sad. Those sugar maples are sticks. These nice liberls steal the sugar and there is nothing left over for the trees. We are so fubar.

Thanks for the review Pstarr. We have over 300 trees that are over 10" diameter that we tap.
Am I one of the nice liberls? The deal we make with the trees is to cut out a lot of the competition in exchange for some of their sap every spring. It's working out well for both us and the trees so far.

You are doing the best you can Revi. It's just the state of the world tires me sometimes. I am one of those liberals trying to make it work. But the odds blow.

[Loki]

Revi, do you have a thread where you describe your sugaring process in detail? I was going to suggest sugar maples to the OP, but I know nothing about them. Don't think sugar maples do all that well around here (I've seen a few but not many), but I've thought about tapping some native maples and seeing if I can't make some sugar.

[Pops]

For the wet ground, how about Reed Canarygrass? it makes good fodder, loves wet feet and seems to be hardy anywhere south of the arctic circle. It's invasive but might be just the ticket to gain a little graze.

[PrestonSturges]

Leave yourself a few good timber trees. A friend took out some oak trees that overhung his cabin, had them cut up with a portable saw mill, kiln dried it and finished the wood at a local mill, then gave his cabin interior oak paneling. I think he used 3/4" wood.

[PrestonSturges]

Make friends with your neighbors. Also find out where to get manure, which might still be available. Locate the nearest saw mill, and who has a portable mill. Find out who has a backhoe for when you want some digging done. Go scouting for random finds like building stone or someone with a big heap of firebrick. Look at your furnace and figure out where you need to go when you suddenly need a blower motor - is it at that rustic hardware store over the hill (which might have everything you'd ever need) or do you need to drive 80 miles? Where's the nearest place to buy K-1 kero?

[vtsnowedin]

Revi, do you have a thread where you describe your sugaring process in detail? I was going to suggest sugar maples to the OP, but I know nothing about them. Don't think sugar maples do all that well around here (I've seen a few but not many), but I've thought about tapping some native maples and seeing if I can't make some sugar.

Here is a link that will be informative.
http://www.vermontmaple.org/