Plowing & Tilling To Improve Soil in 3 Different Areas

Welcome back to wood street farm i’m Phil And we got a bunch of soil work to do You can see that nice wood pile back There a couple different wood piles been Doing a bunch of firewood work lately Been covering all that on my other Channel on flat creek outdoors But today i’m going to share with you a Little bit of soil prep and also Uh some soil repair work because we had Some excavation work done on the Property and we’ve got an area that’s All torn up so we’re going to try to fix That we’ve got another area we’re going To plant some sunflowers this year and We have our final spring planting about To arrive so we need to till up some of Last year’s cover crop that’s in the Very back corner of the field so i’ll Share all of that with you in today’s Video but first We’re going to see if the old blue Tractor will start Hope so Spider webs Hmm This area here this first area i’m gonna Work on is the area that we excavated Subsoil from to build up that road over The creek over there so uh this all now Is just completely torn up and i want to Get some cover crop down on this to try To improve this soil so this isn’t a

Huge area but it’s like it’s a long Narrow area so i’m gonna plow it up From over there where the tractor is And we’re just gonna do like a big Rectangular area here and plant some rye Grass plant some buckwheat and you know Then till that in later You know early summer and then i don’t Know what we’ll do after that but the Goal here is just to kind of improve This soil just a bit because this was Pretty tore up There’s also a little bit of grading Work that needs to happen in here Because where we excavated soil from There’s a little bit of a depression Here so i’m hoping over time we can kind Of fill this Fill this in or you know grade this out Just a little bit pull some soil from Over here pull some soil from over there So that’s all part of the plan let’s get Plowed [Applause] [Applause] So i decided up here this is the widest Part where they took soil when they were Excavating i went left to right across The field and then as i got down where It gets more narrow i went up and down The Field there And i think this will do for now we’ll Come back with the tiller and we’ll get

Some seed down and that’s really all We’re trying to do right now And uh we’ll see how this does in a Couple weeks but let me go over now Stacy’s on the other tractor where we’re Going to plant some leland cypress in That back corner of that field so we’ll Go over and take a look at what she’s Doing and then there’s a third area We’re gonna work on right over here and I’ll talk more about that in a minute So So that’s all tilled up it’s looking Really good this soil has Completely changed the way that it looks In the last year and a half now we have Done several videos on this we dumped Tons and tons of wood chips in this area Last summer we planted two cover crops Of buckwheat and then the fall cover Crop which is what’s still on here as a Mix of oats and rape and clover and i Don’t remember what else but that’s kind Of the rough the rough mix and that has Grown into the spring and you can see it Was you know pretty prolific looking we Probably should have mowed it first Before we tilled it but after going over This with two passes it’s broken up Pretty good there’s a little bit of a Drainage issue on the down uh on the Downhill side over there Right along the tree line it gets really Soft but i think what i can do to help

That is get the sub soiler out on the Big tractor back kind of up into the Tree line just a bit and just try to dig A couple little subsoiled trenches off Into that tree line and that i think Will help some of that low part drain But i don’t think long term we’re really Going to have a lot of trees along that Tree line anyway since it gets Shade half the day the trees won’t grow You know won’t grow real full anyway so Uh this is gonna be room enough for us To do the 100 or so leland cyprus that We have coming in and that is going to Wrap it up for our planting of trees This spring and we’re going to focus our Energy into flowers which is actually Going to be What we’re going to work on next let’s Head over there This section here is right next to where We planted some pine trees a couple Weeks ago and we’ve got about five rows Worth of space which means over 40 feet Worth of space before our next Row of surviving trees over there and We’ve done at least three or four Plantings in this section and have had Very little success with anything Surviving so we are going to spend some Time to improve the soil so we’re going To give it kind of the same treatment That we’ve done elsewhere we’re going to Plow it over we’re going to till it up

We’re going to plant some cover crop and The first thing that’s going to go in Here this early season is some sunflower And that’ll be in full bloom in early Summer and we’ll be able to have this as Our first sunflower patch i’ve got a Bunch of sunflower seed left over from Last year so hopefully that’ll work Great for this section and then that’ll Get mowed down and we’ll plant something Else maybe a buckwheat or something for Uh late summer into the early fall and Then we’ll do something else over the Fall and by then after a couple Rotations of that hopefully the soil Test out as being much better than it is Now and we’ll be able to get some trees In here next year [Applause] So [Applause] Not a bad morning’s work we got Everything done we want to get done we Did measure off this patch i forgot to Grab the camera and show you but not That you really care but It’s about seven thousand little over Seven thousand square feet we’ve got Almost 200 feet that way and it’s 40 Feet between rows but we’re gonna leave Enough room to mow around this thing so Uh it comes out to right around seven Thousand square feet which is what less Than

Certainly less than a fifth of an acre This will make a really pretty sunflower Patch i think it’ll be really visible When people enter our property across The pond over there you’ll be able to See the field of trees or at least what You can see up there close to the pond Where the bigger trees are and then out Behind that you’ll see this patch of Yellow which should look really cool but Like i said this is just a an Opportunity for us i think to improve The soil up here since we’ve had several Batches of trees not do well As i was plowing i did notice a whole Bunch of big fat white grubs which were Probably munching on the roots of our Trees and that certainly didn’t help uh The trees that were in this area so Maybe some of the die off that we had in This section was grub related maybe some Was fertility related maybe some was Drainage related and maybe it was a Combination of all of those things i Don’t know but if we can get rid of the Grubs and we can improve the health and Fertility of the soil we we can at least You know control those two things the Drainage i can’t control nearly as much And that just kind of is what it is but We’ll try some more trees out here in Another year so after we get a couple Different crops through this area and That should make things a little bit

Better so spin your round from right There This is where last year’s flower patch Was and we put down rye grass seed Annual rye seed at the end of last Season and we literally didn’t do Anything to this except for Mow down what was here there was all of The sunflower debris All of the cosmos that went to seed all Of the zinnias that went to seed and we Just in that area where all those plants Were used the bag spreader and put seed Out and you can see it came out really Well i’m hoping Since we’re moving our main flower patch To the other side of the pond this year Um we’re just gonna leave this and i’m Hoping our zinnias and our cosmos or at Least some of them will come back and This will look like sort of a little Wildflower meadow i don’t know we’ll see What happens if not whatever this can Just sit the way it is for now On the other half of this patch because This was like 180 feet long where we did Not have zinnias and cosmos We are going to do some flowers over Here later this season So that’ll be something we’ll work on But this half where the zinnias and Cosmos were we’re just going to let that Sit and see if anything comes back if it Does that’ll be really cool if not oh

Well we’ll probably you know plow it up And do a cover crop in the fall or Something but all of this Area here this nice bright green this is That annual rye and we’ll be cutting This down and tilling it in before it Goes to seed And Then we’ll figure out what we’re going To do with it while i was plowing the Other sunflower section over there Across the field Back that way Stacy was tilling this first section That i worked on this morning so now it Is all good to go And in this area up here you can really See How This Kind of cuts down right there and that’s Where we excavated a lot of filter to Take downhill to where that road is way Down there So what i’m going to try to do is just Kind of fill this depression in just a Little bit so we’ve done some extra and I’m probably going to do a little bit More Tilling up in this area and then we’ll End up scraping some of this off and Moving it over here and just trying to Fill that in a little bit and of course We’re going to get all of the weed and

Grass seed that’s in that topsoil Over here as well and that’ll help that Fill in at least that’s my theory but Eventually this whole field is going to Be covered in christmas trees that is The long-term plan right now we’ve only Been planting on that half the field and We’ve got some more room to grow And since we’ve had losses we keep Filling in where we’ve had losses and Hopefully as we learn more we’ll have Fewer losses over time and eventually That field will fill up and we’ll have To move over here so uh in the meantime That gives us time to kind of figure out How best to amend the soils and improve The soils and all that kind of stuff and That’s part of what we’re hoping to Apply to this side of the field before Our trees start getting planted over Here so i’m going to um plan on Kind of grating this off a little bit Filling in that depression that’s over There where we excavated some of the Clay soil for the new road that’s down The hill And we just got kind of our work cut out For us with all of this soil work here But this is going to look really pretty I think as a buckwheat field and that is Our plan for spring early summer is that We’re gonna plant rye grass and Buckwheat mix together Really fill this up get a lot of organic

Matter here till that in And um And of course we’ve got to do a soil Test and figure out what other Amendments we need to add and i know That there are some this is actually a Section here that we’ve never tested So that’s on the plan as well and i’ll Keep you guys posted how that goes So thanks for following along guys this Was kind of uh Probably a bit of a long video because There’s just a lot going on And I’ve got a couple different projects Here that i get to update you guys on on A future video and just learning a lot Of stuff here as it relates to planting Christmas trees and growing christmas Trees and hopefully having in the future Better success with christmas trees and Then also planting different cover crops To improve the soil and planting flowers Which will help us make some money here On the property so all of those Different aspects i look forward to Sharing with you guys on future videos If you don’t already subscribe i hope You consider subscribing so you can plug Into our future videos and get all these Updates and until next time hope you Have a good one i’ll see you on the next Video bye-bye