Category: Trees

29/9/26

The flowers in the tree circles—which I wrote about sowing in my post from May 13—have taken root well. However, it’s difficult to determine which method was most successful. For one thing, there was a gap of over a month between sowing in the first and the last tree circle. As a result, most of the flowers in the first two tree circles had already finished blooming. Furthermore, it became apparent that the presence of certain plants (particularly noticeable with tansy, but also with the field thistle) suppressed the establishment of other flowers. Overall, the flower mix certainly increased biodiversity, but it wasn’t really representative of the types of flowers that are meant to enrich a pasture. Especially now as fall approaches, the cosmos have taken over—these are ornamental plants in our region and originate from the New World. They’re still lovely to look at, though.

Most of the flowers can be seen in the smallest tree circle I worked on right at the end of May. Here, the soil was dug up to a depth of two spades along the edge before the flower mix was sown. In the center, I also raked the tilled area to remove a large portion of the existing vegetation.

In one tree circle, I had dug up one section to a depth of two and another to a depth of one spade. Even though a direct comparison is possible here, there’s hardly any difference to be seen. In the section dug up to a depth of one spade, there’s a bit more grass and sorrel.

one spade deep on the left—two spades deep on the right

It seems that in the areas where I simply turned over the sod, thistles and other „weeds“ tend to grow a bit more frequently right among the planted flowers. Next year, I’ll be able to observe in which area the annual flowers are best able to self-seed and whether they can hold their own, at least to some extent, against the „weeds“ typical of that location.

Thistles, stinging nettles, and mugwort are spreading among the planted crops

When sowing the seeds, in some of the tilled areas I lightly raked the seeds into the soil and then scattered a few more on top, while in others I simply scattered the seeds and covered them with a little soil. I can't tell the difference between the two methods.

3/2/26

After it was already very frosty at the beginning of January, a new frost period began around January 19, 26, during which there were hardly any temperatures above freezing. At least since January 20, 26, a piece of ice from the drinking water bucket has been lying on the pasture and has not thawed despite occasional sunshine.

For the past three days we have had temperatures continuously below freezing, coupled with a blowing wind. A change in the weather is not in sight. Already the day before yesterday we were unable to set up any fence because the ground is frozen so hard. Fortunately, we had already fenced off a few pasture areas in advance, so the animals can move today. But we don't have any more in reserve. That means that at the latest in three days we will have to supplement feed significantly. Perhaps we will also manage to get a few fence posts into the ground with a hammer without them bending.

Looking for something to eat, the goats in particular, but also individual sheep, attack the trees.

I rub individual trees with sheep dung. To do this, I pick up the dung along with the parts of raw wool from shearing that are not suitable for spinning. This is supposed to keep the animals from stripping the bark. Previously, that worked quite well too. At the moment, however, the frozen dung does not seem to have the same deterrent effect, and the animals continue to feed happily.

Some trees were almost completely stripped of their bark this morning. It remains to be seen whether the affected trees will survive.

To treat the trees in the new section, I first let the collected dung thaw in our boiler room and then mixed it with a little water. If that doesn't help either, the trees will probably have to be completely removed from grazing in the winter.