I said slayground in the title, but it’s not really, it just sounded cool. This 40 acres is thick and nasty with Black/Honey locusts, briars, Deer Tongue grass, and oaks. There seems to be enough late season forage, but I’m adding in a half acre plot to help out. I’ll be planting it in clover shortly to get it established, and then something for a late season food source in August. Soil tests have been done and I’m getting ready to put the lime down. The only equipment I’ve been using is a Craftsman lt1000, an old drag harrow, a chainsaw, a 2 1/2 gallon sprayer, an ax, and limb loppers. The poor craftsman is beat up pretty bad from bush hogging. There are a lot of stands of Sassafrass anywhere from 3 inches in diameter up to 12 inches in diameter in groups of 15-20 trees. I’ve been hacking and squirting them to hopefully open up the canopy and thicken up the undergrowth in the timber. This 40 acre patch is surrounded by about 300 acres of Ag, so I don’t worry about summer food. I’ve been hunting this property going on three years, and know I have at least 5 bucks 4yo or older in the area. The bucks mainly use the top of the ridge (red line) to travel from Ag-bedding and sometimes come down to an old pond with a busted spillway (it holds about a foot of water) to bed on the inside of the bank in the bowl of the pond, or get a drink and move on. I hadn’t made a trail back to the ridge top until after I killed my buck this year. I assumed they were using it, but after hanging a camera, I’m confident in placing a stand back there. So red line is ridge top, blue is watering hole, yellow is bedding area, white is an entrance into the woods, and green is my half acre plot. So the point of this is??? I don’t know. I’m bored and I’m ready for OCTOBER!!! Ridge top White circled area Pre hack and squirt. One of many sassafras patches Plot area before After...
“Planted” best I could with what I have Had some seed a coworker gave me from his local co op, so I decided to put it out and see what happens. The end game is to make it all clover, but I didn’t want to waste free seeds. Ill throw the clover down in the fall and frost seed next year. From behind where I took the pic to the pole, I planted miller, sunflowers, buckwheat, cowpeas, lab lab, clover, soybeans(I don’t think germinated), sorghum(also don’t think germinated) Then already had clover established from the telephoine pole past the next telephone pole. If the deer don’t eat it, I guess the birds will.
Looks like you have a sweet deal going! How long would you say it took to clear your plot area? and did you till the ground much at all?
I was trying to kill them which didnt really work. I guess sassafras doesn’t really hinge is what I’ve been told. I’m going to try it after this coming winter and if the don’t hinge I’ll just cut them down. Just trying to let more light in.
It’s an on going deal. I had it all cleared last year except for some chainsaw work but I didn’t plant anything. This past winter, I cut back some of the sassafras and autum olive to make the edges straighter. I didn’t till it, just drug a harrow around to open it up a little, broadcasted the seed and then drug it with the harrow again.
