For the last two years, we have been feeding the horses round bale on the pipeline. It’s the WORST soil on this place, and on a plot of pure white beach sand, that’s saying something. So the dead rotted waste hay and horse manure have done wonders for the soil. There is a gully that bisects the so called pasture. Standing in the gully facing towards the front of our property, the giant Bermuda I sowed is coming up and making a good showing. We hayed this half first and it sure improved the soil.
Standing at the back of our property, this half was last and still had a lot of hay that hadn’t totally rotted in. The Bermuda is coming up now and I’m hoping the extra humus will keep the sand from heating up in August and cooking the grass roots.
A close up of the new grass coming up. Of course the horses are locked out and they don’t think too much of that idea.
Before I sowed grass seed, I ran the tractor and disc up and down the pipeline, breaking up the soil. Because it all runs downhill, I then ran the disc from side to side, making small furrows to hopefully keep it all from washing down to the gully. There is a fence on one side of the pipeline and forest on the other. There was a lot of going forward, running into the trees, picking up the disc, backing to the fence, dropping the disc, going forward into the trees, rinse, repeat. It worked, it’s holding soil and not all washing downhill.
The horses walked a rut down to the gully and we have to fill it in. We have gotten 8 1/2” of rain over the last week and a half, so the rut has washed. But we’ll get it filled, there’s plenty of horse manure in the barn. LOL The rain has made the grass really take off.
We have been here 7 years. I’ve thrown a lot of grass seed at the pipeline, hoping something would take. I think this time it’s going to work.