Pastures and House Lawn

From Bed to Bed and In Between

August 21, 2020 /
  • Original deer form within the future bed
  • West pasture sandspur removal
Here is a look at various projects we’re pushing along, and it feels like we’re over the hump finally. The beds are in transition and between harvests after a good first summer yield. The spaghetti squash was not much more than a visual feast and nitrifier; chickens didn’t dig it either. They either rotted in place or the seeds already germinating inside surprised us as we cut open those that made it to drying stage. Wrong substrate, wrong weather and maybe a gnarly hybrid. Manzano banana mats are getting bigger and we may get a few more to dominate that bed.

The most distant rich organic heap of old tree trunks in the West pasture, the “Deer Form” bed, is finally prepped for a primitive variation of hugelkultur. In addition to the 7ft tall noxious pasture weeds I removed there last November, there remained a very old Virginia creeper vine that had been when those dead pine were still standing. It had been covering and strangling the young trees at the edges of a 60ft diameter circle, and the sight of it reminded me of Kudzu, plus it was sending 30ft cables to threaten the old live oak nearby. I removed the plant by thoroughly ripping out all the surface and subterranean vines, rescuing the trees and leaving the winged sumac and dewberry to allelopathically supress weeds until we develop it further. After enrichment with added mulch and rakings to moisten and rot the wood, we’re looking at this being good place for extra avocado and fruit trees. We’ll leave the sumac, young oak and saw palmetto to thrive along the edges. The new oasis patio (evolving) and pool are a nice reward at the end of heavy outdoor project shifts, and this was one of the hardest.

James V. Freeman is an established visual artist (oil painting) with a deep interest in natural history, plants and farming. He has had numerous solo shows, a solo museum show, an upcoming museum show and his work has been featured in many publications to date. He currently has a studio in Williston, Fl at the family farm and homestead, "Cactus Island", and as a farmer, specializes in growing columnar cacti of the Caribbean and Gulf countries as well as the aquatic Madegascar Lace Plant. James and his mom Sharon manage and develop the permaculture homestead.

4 Comments

    • James V Freeman

      August 21, 2020 at 10:32 pm

      That’s really cool. I have seen them in Rincon Ga but not anywhere further north. They made an appearance when John and Donna were here. They’re hard to piss off but the sting can be pretty bad. Look up velvet ant challenge on YouTube and there are several people tho deliberately get stung. Not my cup of tea.