Mr Y and I drove out to the bush block yesterday with the kids, to cut firewood. The bracken is coming back in force through all the dirt that the bulldozer pushed around, dammit. For pics see my blog:

http://yeehahsgarden.blogspot.com/

After reading in the April Chat thread about people buying bales of mulching hay or sugar cane, I was wondering if anybody had any ideas about how to mulch a HUGE area, say about an acre, preferably so that the bracken won’t come through. The plan is to plant out about half an acre of orchard (for starters) but the most urgent thing is to get the weeds under control.

If, say, we could get a truckload of … er, dunno what … delivered, would we need to spread a weed-suppressing layer underneath it first? I’m thinking of my previous garden where I laid a thick pad of newspaper under mulch to kill weeds. No idea how to go about it for an acre, though.

Any and all suggestions, no matter how silly or expensive, welcome!

Yeehah said:

Mr Y and I drove out to the bush block yesterday with the kids, to cut firewood. The bracken is coming back in force through all the dirt that the bulldozer pushed around, dammit. For pics see my blog:

http://yeehahsgarden.blogspot.com/

After reading in the April Chat thread about people buying bales of mulching hay or sugar cane, I was wondering if anybody had any ideas about how to mulch a HUGE area, say about an acre, preferably so that the bracken won’t come through. The plan is to plant out about half an acre of orchard (for starters) but the most urgent thing is to get the weeds under control.

If, say, we could get a truckload of … er, dunno what … delivered, would we need to spread a weed-suppressing layer underneath it first? I’m thinking of my previous garden where I laid a thick pad of newspaper under mulch to kill weeds. No idea how to go about it for an acre, though.

Any and all suggestions, no matter how silly or expensive, welcome!

Hey Yeehah. The cheapest and best way is to grow a cover crop. A living mulch. Green harvest have suggestions for crop types for different locations.

First i’d get a soil test done. Your local produce or Ag’ store should be able to help. Then I’d rotary hoe the area, adding any goodies the soil might need. Get a 10m3 truck of compost delivered and use a machine like a dingo to incoorporate it into the soil where the trees are to go. This will raise the planting area and help with drainage as well as adding organic matter to the soil. You’d use about 1/2 a metre to a tree if the drainage is fair to good. More if drainage is a bit sus.
Then broadcast plant the cover crop, not on the mounds but everywhere else. Plant the trees and irrigate the whole area until the covercrop is established.

nice blog yeehah.
normally you plant the orchard and slash between, using the slashed bracken as your mulch. I’ve got two acres – one and a half of which is paddock and natives. i plan to plant crops on the acre – broad bean , barley and then clover/ lucerne over 3 years. this will eventually provide the mulch.

very nice did u mean there is new photos up there.

Longy said:

Hey Yeehah. The cheapest and best way is to grow a cover crop. A living mulch.

what I was thinking ;)

bluegreen said:

Longy said:

Hey Yeehah. The cheapest and best way is to grow a cover crop. A living mulch.

what I was thinking ;)

What about clover????? In the river cottage series… Hugh had clover growing in the paddock and it was used a food fodder as well……

Lucky1 said:

bluegreen said:

Longy said:

Hey Yeehah. The cheapest and best way is to grow a cover crop. A living mulch.

what I was thinking ;)

What about clover????? In the river cottage series… Hugh had clover growing in the paddock and it was used a food fodder as well……

i know a good company u can get green manure crop seeds from ill post the site here:
http://cornucopiaseeds.com.au/
then click on browse or products (http://cornucopiaseeds.com.au/zencart/index.php)

Green Manures/Ground Covers

http://cornucopiaseeds.com.au/zencart/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=60&zenid=c5a0dfc4f396095044199e52f58890ac

(done all of them incase some links dont work plus u will need a account to order).

cool blog Yeehah, thanks for sharing :)

arvo all

Mr Y rang a neighbour about finding a tractor so we can green manure the block. Will have to go talk to him and find out what our chances are! Because it’s so far out of town, can’t afford to pay anyone to take a tractor out there. And because the blocks are a minimum of 25 acres, the neighbours are relatively few and far between. And not everyone is into gardening, so it might take us a while to find a tractor, or something that will do the job of getting the green manure seeds beneath the soil so the local wildlife doesn’t eat them all!

It has me wondering, though, whether a couple of acres of green manure on an unfenced block will just become roo and wallaby food? (not sure how big the rabbit population is either – calici (sp.?) virus didn’t have much effect up here in the cold country I’m told).

Hi Yeehah,
What are you sowing for green manure? barley?
If you’re still fit and healthy….how about using the ‘ol plough behind a mule/horse?…if you have access to such an animal. It wouldn’t go very quick…but you’d get there.

Another possibility is getting the seeds pre-pelletized in clay, if green manure ones are available that way…i’ve heard of seeds being “packaged” that way for dispersal sowing without digging. Anyhow, I don’t know specific details, I’m not a farmer. Regardless of any possible problems with animals foraging on the green manure, they can’t eat it all….so it’s bound to have lots of positive effect on the soil.

good luck with it.
Yeehah said:

Mr Y rang a neighbour about finding a tractor so we can green manure the block. Will have to go talk to him and find out what our chances are! Because it’s so far out of town, can’t afford to pay anyone to take a tractor out there. And because the blocks are a minimum of 25 acres, the neighbours are relatively few and far between. And not everyone is into gardening, so it might take us a while to find a tractor, or something that will do the job of getting the green manure seeds beneath the soil so the local wildlife doesn’t eat them all!

It has me wondering, though, whether a couple of acres of green manure on an unfenced block will just become roo and wallaby food? (not sure how big the rabbit population is either – calici (sp.?) virus didn’t have much effect up here in the cold country I’m told).

I had a nap today so i’m sleepness now.
I have just looked at the bracken on you photo of ‘the shed’.
The bracken cannot be be beaten easily.
Our 26 acre farm, which we ‘farmed’ for 30 years was never free of the endemic grass – phallaris -until our good neighbour grazed it correctly with his sheep. Our current 2 acre property has endemic ‘soursob’ and although the local farmer planted fava beans as a green manure crop and rotaried hoe them in, the soursob is still strong.
Unless you spray; the bracken will keep coming back.
You are being ambitious to try and plant an orchard before you have built your house and live on the property full time. The roos and rabbits (not to mention birds, possums, bugs and drought) will destroy everything you attempt to establish now.
My advice would be to learn the fine art of fencing and put up a good fence around your proposed two acre orchard and maybe plant six trees inside the fence with tree guards around them. That way you won’t lose a lot if something does go wrong and you can use a small slasher to control the bracken.
I owned a tractor with 6 implements (slasher, rotary hoe, ripper, tynes etc). You will need a tractor but they are a black hole, money wise, so wait until you know what you need.
Have you planted windbreak trees yet?

It has me wondering, though, whether a couple of acres of green manure on an unfenced block will just become roo and wallaby food? (not sure how big the rabbit population is either – calici (sp.?) virus didn’t have much effect up here in the cold country I’m told).

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It’s a fair point Yeehah. I’d get the soil tested by all means, but as Pepe suggests, might be best to wait until you live there and the area is fenced before forking out for tractors and seed.

a couple of acres of green manure
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Are you going to green manure the area or plant a cover crop?

Longy said:

a couple of acres of green manure
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Are you going to green manure the area or plant a cover crop?

I remembered to grab a handful of soil to bring home for a pH test, but it’s still in the car, hopefully will remember to get it out and test during the week.

Tossing up whether to (1) buy a tractor and use it to plant our own green manure OR (2) pay the bloke up the road to use his tractor to plant our green manure crop OR (3) buy a tractor and not plant green manure, just slash the weed regrowth every now and then so we can see the snakes OR (4) don’t spend any money on tractors or green manure, whack into building the chook-and-vegie tunnels and planting out the orchard, and gradually build gardens as the means to do so come available.

Don’t need to make any hard decisions for a couple of weeks yet. Mr Y is heading the investigative task force while I plough through my TAFE work. Need to finish my year-long course in 3 terms, i.e. by the end of September, so he’s the head honcho while I’m the chief naggingwife!