Steps to take on my New Land - Advice?

[KingM]

I moved last August onto a nice piece of land of about 8.5 acres and would like to do some peak oil type preparations. About half of the property is wooded, with about 1/3 crappy poplar and the rest immature and mature forest with about a dozen 40 inch pines on the hillside and maybe fifty trees with some marketable value such as beech, birch, maple, and a few cherry (the wood, not the fruit), ranging from 16-26 inches. I'm thinking about cutting down the poplar but leaving the valuable trees in place as I don't need the money at the moment, even though I could probably get a nice chunk of change if I cut them down and might give more value to the timber over the long run. I don't know.

I have two excellent patches of wild leeks (ramps), that are absolutely delicious and grow among the timber. I've got a pond that might serve for aquaculture some day, but at the moment is amphibian habitat with a few trout that wander in and out through one of the two streams on the property. One of them would make a great microhydro site, if I thought there was a ghost's chance of getting a permit. There's a kind of swampy area of about a half acre that doesn't have much value, and a vegetable garden-ready area that might be another half acre, but would need to be fenced against critters.

There are also 27 overgrown apple trees scattered across the property. My plan is to gradually prune these into shape and to make some cider and apple jack. If I ever needed to feed the family with my own food, I figure I could eat some, dry and store some, and trade alcohol for other food and supplies.

Obviously, there's some nice potential on the property, but my current needs are quite limited and so I mainly want to get the property ready for a just in case situation as well as to teach myself necessary skills in the meanwhile. Any suggestions from the group?

[PrestonSturges]

Talk to your county extension agent and check your university horticulture guides. Your choices of trees may be limited but you could have pears, and there are lots of berries like service berry, lingonberry, blueberry, and seaberry for that climate.

[Loki]

How about pasture? How much?

If the property only has a half acre suitable for row crops/pasture and the rest is woodland and wetlands, your choices will be a bit constricted. Managing the woodland for personal firewood, obviously. I'd also do log mushrooms. I just inoculated 50+ logs with shiitake using salvaged ash from the farm, makes good use of storm-damaged trees and doesn't take much time or specialized equipment.

We ran half a dozen pigs in some overgrown woodland last year, they cleared it up nicely. But they mostly ate store-bought ration. I'm raising four pastured pigs with a friend right now; they don't require much time or space, but again, we're mostly feeding them ration. Pigs are livestock that you can run in woodlands, though, and pork is personally my favorite meat, bar none.

I'd evaluate the apples, prune those worth keeping and remove any that don't look productive or are diseased. Expand and diversify the orchard, try to consolidate it if possible. You'd have to research which tree fruit do well in Vermont, I have no idea myself.

Waterfowl might make sense for you, they do well in orchards and you might be able to make use of the wetter areas on the property. Ducks, maybe geese, layers and meat birds. Not something I know much about but I've been reading a bit lately and it seems promising. Duck eggs go for a premium around here.

Unless you're trying to grow crops for market, a half acre veg garden is more than enough for one or two people to manage part-time, probably too much. I'd start small, a couple thousand square feet at most (something easily fenced against deer), and run a chicken tractor and/or a couple milk goats on the rest. I'm a big fan of livestock-vegetable rotations. The ideal rotation I've been considering lately for a small commercial farm is ruminants>poultry>cover crop>vegetables>pigs. I like Salatin's ideas on the subject.

I'd definitely build a greenhouse or three if possible. See Eliot Coleman on using greenhouses in New England.

I'd leave the more exotic stuff (aquaculture, microhydro, etc.) for later. I'd think learning woodlot management, veg gardening, orcharding, and livestock on a part-time basis should keep you plenty busy. Wouldn't hurt to make friends with a beekeeper, either, they do the work, you get the pollination and some honey.

An alternative to highly diversified homesteading is specializing in one or two things and bartering your surplus locally. All of this stuff takes an enormous amount of time, it'd be a lot easier for a part-timer to just focus on a couple things. Maybe the woodlot/orchard and a small garden, plus a few layers.

[vtsnowedin]

If the apple trees are wild they will produce good cider apples but not be good for much else. You can "release them" by cutting any competing trees & brush around them and giving them a good pruning. They will attract deer in the fall if you are a hunter. You could clear out some of them and plant a few commercial varieties and start a real orchard. Macintosh do well here. You will have to spray them to get worm and scab free apples.
Are the poplars on grown up pasture or just regrowth from a clear cut logging job? If it is old pasture or field you could clear-cut it and put it back into pasture by annual brush hogging or if your impatient you can grub out the stumps then plow and plant to grass. The easy way to get a poplar stump out is to push the whole tree over with a tractor loader then get under the stump with the bucket and push it free. Then cut the tree off and pile brush logs and stump in separate piles. How big a tree you can do this way depends on what size tractor you have. Caution though I one time tipped over a good sized tree and it flopped completely over faster then I expected and the root ball came up between the front and rear wheels of the tractor and picked me up high centered. Had to dig in and saw off the log under the tractor.

[careinke]

Lots of good advice above. My advice:

1. Do nothing permanent the first year.
2. Take a year to observe your land
A. Watch where the sun hits.
B. Look for micro climates.
C. Inventory your property (you have a good start)
3. Read:
A. "Teaming with Microbes" 2nd edition
B. "Gaia's Garden"
4. Learn and apply permaculture principles
5. Don't be afraid to experiment, the worst that can happen is you learn what not to do, (well OK, if you do somethings wrong you can get killed, but that rarely happens).
6. Make sure your having fun.

[Evltre]

Lots of good advice above. My advice:

1. Do nothing permanent the first year.
2. Take a year to observe your land
A. Watch where the sun hits.
B. Look for micro climates.

Good advice here - particularly the first few points. This is coming from someone who after *three* years is finally managing to get my head around our little chunk of land in terms of sun/shade/natural runoffs/micro climates etc. To make haste makes waste is very true. Big waste of time and sometimes money rushing in the first year without taking time to make observations to the way your specific piece of land operates. We *thought* we had put vege gardens in the right place, had to move them. Numerous fruit trees have had to move. In fact I think we've relocated just about everything we've planted at least once

In terms of planting, we've gone for "productive" trees and lots of them. Almonds, olives, apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, plums, quince, cherry, feijoas and blueberries for hedging. We've got early, mid and late varieties of all of them. We're still a year or two off the orchard being very productive but we did have a lovely show of blossoms this spring

[KingM]

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.

[Don35]

Great web site and book too. Veggies that grow in various places, sunlight, moisture, etc., but do not need tilling or reseeding. Lower maintenance! I'm doing lots of them on my farm in spots that might not otherwise be productive.

http://perennialvegetables.org/

[pstarr]

Lots of good advice above. My advice:

1. Do nothing permanent the first year.
2. Take a year to observe your land
A. Watch where the sun hits.
B. Look for micro climates.

I'd add;
-Plan for livestock and chickens.
-plan fencing and shelter
----goats climb,
----chickens fly,
----boars bore-ahead,
----cattle rub/scratch themselves and damage orchard trees)
-Design the infrastructure around water, water flows, wind, and sun movement.
----plan different summer and winter pasture, paddocks.
----wetter areas reserve for summer/drought pasture (or pigs).
----windswept hillside for winter grazing (through the snow).
-chicken coop and run on edge between woods and garden (but not directed into the housing area.)

[vtsnowedin]

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.

If it gets dry enough to mow it once a year in August you can use it for sheep hay. You might also be able to improve the drainage with a little bit of ditching. If you fence it off and let goats or sheep have it they will mow it tight and it will dry out so you can get on it and do some work.
Another point. I'd keep four acres in hardwoods to be your heating supply. Cut weed trees for fire wood and occasionally cut a few mature trees to sell the logs and use the tops for this years fuel. At current prices and what loggers give you for stumpage (25%) even a good log is worth as much to you cut up into fire wood as it will bring you from the mill ticket.

[pstarr]

Select and pamper best hardwoods for future sale. Walnut is valuable and long straight boards from straight trunks, with few limbs/knots, will make you rich someday. Thin around them for low-grade sale/firewood/fence posts/whatever/etc. Leave oaks trees for nuts. There's your forest garden!

[vtsnowedin]

Select and pamper best hardwoods for future sale. Walnut is valuable and long straight boards from straight trunks, with few limbs/knots, will make you rich someday. Thin around them for low-grade sale/firewood/fence posts/whatever/etc. Leave oaks trees for nuts. There's your forest garden!

There are no wild walnut trees in Vermont. Especially up in the Kingdom. Sugar Maple or rock maple as it's known is the money tree here. Veneer logs bring a good price if you can cut and land them yourself and only have to pay for the trucking to the mill.

[pstarr]

Select and pamper best hardwoods for future sale. Walnut is valuable and long straight boards from straight trunks, with few limbs/knots, will make you rich someday. Thin around them for low-grade sale/firewood/fence posts/whatever/etc. Leave oaks trees for nuts. There's your forest garden!

There are no wild walnut trees in Vermont. Especially up in the Kingdom. Sugar Maple or rock maple as it's known is the money tree here. Veneer logs bring a good price if you can cut and land them yourself and only have to pay for the trucking to the mill.

My eastern USA wood experience (limited as it was) was in Pennsylvania where black walnut was King! $10,000 trees stolen out of woodlots on a holiday weekend.

[vtsnowedin]

Select and pamper best hardwoods for future sale. Walnut is valuable and long straight boards from straight trunks, with few limbs/knots, will make you rich someday. Thin around them for low-grade sale/firewood/fence posts/whatever/etc. Leave oaks trees for nuts. There's your forest garden!

There are no wild walnut trees in Vermont. Especially up in the Kingdom. Sugar Maple or rock maple as it's known is the money tree here. Veneer logs bring a good price if you can cut and land them yourself and only have to pay for the trucking to the mill.

My eastern USA wood experience (limited as it was) was in Pennsylvania where black walnut was King! $10,000 trees stolen out of woodlots on a holiday weekend.

That hundred miles south and being on the windward side of the Appalachians makes the climate in Pennsylvania much milder then in Vermont. I'd like nothing better then having hickory and walnut trees on my land but I can't even get an oak to survive at my altitude and with my soil type.

[TreeFarmer]

Well, it sounds like you could have a few Maple trees on your land, that would give you a start on some syrup even if it was just enough for family consumption.

I do like the idea of learning your land for a year before you do anything. Many farms have been in the same family for generations. By the time a kid is 15 he knows the farm inside and out.

Since you are in such a rough climate, what about a greenhouse to winter over some plants for transplanting in the spring?

I am sure you will figure out a good use for your land. Overall I would say learn your land and try to make a bit of a comprehensive plan. I say a bit because things change so make a plan with leeway.

TF

[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