Woodland Maintenance at My Farm
This time of year my outdoor grounds crew is very busy "cleaning" the woods of all the cut trees and debris.
As many of you know, I feel very strongly about composting. In fact, an entire corner of my farm is devoted to this important process. Here at my Bedford, New York farm, my crew amasses quite a large pile of organic materials - bark, stumps, logs, and brush. All of it is either repurposed as milled lumber, or left to decay and made into garden dressings, such as mulch and compost. Nothing goes to waste.
Enjoy these photos.
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- As part of the woodland maintenance around my farm, dead, damaged, and diseased trees are taken down during various times of the year. Here, Domi, from my outdoor grounds crew, secures a chain around this log that was cut down last summer.
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- Using our trusted Hi-Lo, Chhiring carefully maneuvers the tractor and piles up the logs near the side of the carriage road for pick-up and chipping. “Cleaning” the woods allows us to reuse and repurpose a lot of natural materials – and it makes the area much prettier.
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- Stacking logs and other debris takes time. Every year, my outdoor grounds crew spends several weeks working in sections of the woodland.
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- After pruning and grooming various trees, branches are also left in neat and tidy piles close to the roads, so they can be picked up at a later time and chipped – everything is returned to the earth, organically and efficiently.
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- Pasang and Domi fill the dump truck with smaller stumps. Whatever can be moved easily is brought to my compost yard.
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- My large composting area is in a field behind my “Christmas tree garden,” where I planted 640 Christmas trees about 13-years ago – White Pine, Frasier Fir, Canaan Fir, Norway Spruce, and Blue Spruce. They are all doing so well.
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- Here is a view of my compost area – one of the most important areas on the property. It’s actually very organized. Piles are divided into types of debris – some in various stages of decay. Wood chips, mulch, leaf mold, grass clippings, and organic matter made up of manure and biodegradable materials. Most of these piles are combined and put through tub grinder that comes to the farm every couple of years.
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- Straight, long logs will be put through a portable sawmill and made into usable lumber boards. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to various sizes. If I cannot save a tree, it is comforting to know I can reuse the wood left behind.
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- Stumps and other wood will be made into much finer chips. This pile is growing quickly.
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- Other piles include this leaf mold, which is compost produced by the decomposition of shaded deciduous shrub and tree leaves, primarily by fungal breakdown in a slower cooler manner.
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- Leaves shed in autumn tend to have a very low nitrogen content and are often dry.
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- Here is Dawa unloading our Polaris off-road utility task vehicle filled with manure and shavings from the chicken yard.
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- The pile of composting chicken and horse manure, which is filled with nutrients, is smoking. Healthy organisms in the compost will be active and produce steam even in winter.
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- In another area, we pile up unused rocks from around the farm.
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- And here are piles of organic material in different stages of decay.
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- This pile is under a compost protection Gore-Tex tarp, which keeps the rain away, and allows excess moisture to evaporate and breathe.
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- This compost will be used to cover my garden beds in spring, and top-dress the vegetable gardens.
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- My young trees are also potted with rich, nutrient filled compost. Compost is organic matter that has been decomposed over time, while mulch is the layer of organic materials used as a protective cover.
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- Wood chips are spread out evenly around my young trees growing on the edge of my hayfield. Wood chips decompose quickly, and add nutrients back to the soil. Like mulch, using wood chips insulates the soil around the saplings and provides protection from the cold. Here’s Chhiring dropping batches of wood chips using our Kubota M4-071 tractor.
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- And here, mulch is used to cover the areas surrounding my azaleas.
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- Covering the garden beds also helps to deter weeds. Using these materials is a wonderful way to beautify the gardens and give back to the earth. Do you compost? Share your comments and tips with me below.
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