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A Start on the Forest Garden Hedgerow
I was very excited to get some preliminary ideas for our forest garden hedgerow down on paper (i.e. the Master Plan). Also to start a list of possible things to plant. The next step to making it a reality was to go out and assess what is growing there already. We decided the oaks should stay (acorns), also the sweet gum (for the time being), but the black cherries needed to come down.
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| The goats were right there to “help”. |
This is because wilted black cherry leaves can be toxic to goats, so I wanted to replace them with something better for them, and good for us.
The next step was to start fencing in the area, so I can start to plant.
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| The gnarly shrub on the right is a wild rose bush. The goats have all but killed it and I'd like to save it for the wild rose hips. |
We decided to use cattle panels and t-posts. Cattle panels are a little more expensive rolls of fencing, but we wouldn't need to sink brace posts. Plus we can reshape if need be (a distinct possibility since this is an experiment). It curves around to the blueberry corral on the one side.
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| The gate here will serve as entrance to the entire hedgerow once a few sections of rails are removed. |
And on the other side too.
The two panels above are offset, height-wise, because the fence must cross a ridge. Dan put the t-post in the center of the ridge. It worked out so there are no gaps under the fence.
Here's a birds eye view of what I'm talking about.
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| Yellow is what we're working on. Blue is existing. |
What we've been working on is the bottom part. The top part will be next. Dan will remove two sections of rails of the blueberry corral, giving access to both sections of the hedgerow.
Also to be added will be two gates (these will require brace posts). We need a drive-through gate (bottom), and for convenience, will add a wheelbarrow width walk-through gate as well (top). The walk-through gate is pretty much a straight shot from the goat shed and hay storage to the hay feeder in the goat shelter.
There is still quite a bit of work to do, but we're happy with our start.
Source: http://www.5acresandadream.com/2015/02/a-start-on-forest-garden-hedgerow.html
