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Labbe-Watson Homestead

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Commenced:	01/07/2010
Submitted:	10/08/2011
Last updated:	07/10/2015
Location:	168 W. Meadow Rd, Rockland, ME, US
Website:	http://midcoastpermaculture.com/
Climate zone:	Cold Temperate

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Labbe-Watson Homestead

Rockland, US

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Grading-mulching Aug 2010

Project: Labbe-Watson Homestead

Posted by Jesse Labbe-Watson almost 11 years ago

Finish grading by hand. Mostly with a hoe.

The quackgrass (Agropyron repens) is the first plant to rebound. I took a calculated risk and decided to leave it in the landscape to help with slope stabilization. I considered an application of herbicide to kill it, since it is about the most dominant plant in the landscape. I decided to leave it though, so the rhizomes could bind up the newly disturbed soil and prevent erosion. Thank you for your most excellent services quackgrass, now be on your way!

Three years old and this year our peach tree probably gave 50 lbs of peaches! When the crop was starting to ripen i was practically subsisting on peaches, eating something like five a day. I was hustling trying to get the terraces graded and seeded, hoping to get a leg up over the quackgrass.

Quackgrass hiding in the slopes between terraces and running in the understory of my young apple tree. Another thing i learned is that you can have success by controlling quackgrass using sheet mulching, but you must do it in the right time of year, namely Spring and then Summer. If you sheet mulch in the Fall, all you do is aid the quackgrass by killing off it’s competitors.

I used oats and rye which are considered fall cover crops. the oats will die over winter. the rye will have to be tilled in if i want to kill it. I was a little thin on mulch, so i cut what nearby verge was long enough and used it.

I used the machine to create a temporary scar on the landscape. Now with the earth bare, i have an opportunity (and the duty) to repair the damage i've done. So i'll do successive cover crops on a shallow-till schedule to quickly rebuild the living soil and increase the organic matter content.

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