Permaculture

Sustainably harvesting of local hardwoods.

In 1986 we bought 20 acres of cropland and woodlot 15 miles south of Madison. It had been in continous corn for over a decade and the sandy soil was worn out.

The first step was to plant cover crops to restore the soil, along with many tons of compost, manure and other soil amendments. Tree planting began soon after: more windbreaks, forest restoration, nursery stock, and orchard trees.

The droughts of 1987 and 1988 took a heavy toll, teaching a valuable lesson: the importance of irrigation even here in Wisconsin with our usually abundant rainfall. We now recommend some sort of irrigation backup to protect the young trees in any new planting.

During the drought of 2003 the well established orchard, well mulched, provided one of the best crops ever with no irrigation. The trees were well rooted and survived months of no rain, the usual host of fungus diseases did not.

The nut orchard was planted soon after with trials of many varieties. 15 years later some are in production, others getting close, and about half died off. A few varities have proven well adapted to our microclimate, some of the stragglers are catching up. Patience is important when pushing the limits of trees; they may straggle along for years, getting cut back by winterkill, rabbits, deer, and tractor blight, then suddenly after a mild winter or other fortuitious event will begin to thrive and bear fruit.

The real winners have been the hazels and chestnuts from Badgersett nurseries, bearing good crops with relative frreedom from disease.  In 2004 we established another 2000 chestnut trees and thanks to plenty of rainfall, they are thriving.