Lazy Thursday morning thoughts...
The plea for organic practices cannot be practised successfully with quick results if we have wrecked our land and in so doing have destroyed our soil life. If we have non fertile land, our land is probably at least one of the following ....
1. compacted with no oxygen in it
2. dirt not soil due to soil erosion
3. full of weeds shedding more weedy seeds everywhere by the ten thousand with probably much of them being poisonous to horses or detrimental to horse health
4. deficient in nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, and other essential minerals and elements
5. overgrazed and non water retaining
6. the wrong side of a ph scale for growing grass.
I get frustrated about the call of a desperate land owner in despair about the state of their neglected ground, who is maintaining they don’t want to use any “nasty chemicals”. The truth is if it’s inadvertently damaged to a large extent, it’s like punching a hole in the wall and then telling our handyman he must repair it using only Farrow and Ball paint. Now, come with a good base and none of the issues listed above and we have the perfect opportunity to maintain organic and use organic practises. Let’s all Farrow and Ball away, my friends, smug in our reverie. Most of us, however, are stuck somewhere between the two camps .... chastised by the ecologists but also guiltily wanting to get quicker results for our neds health.
But say we still stubbornly want to only use organic practices and improve our ground, what do we do? Well, the first thing is to realise the time and climate factor involved and actually have realistic expectations about what can be achieved if it’s all working against us. If we can improve our land by only five percent per year, we are doing really really well. If we have lots of rainfall the source of life, and sun and longer daylight hours, then we have both climate and time on our sides.
The next thing is get life into our soil. Life needs oxygen and water and fibrous green and brown matter, fungi, nematodes, earthworms, ants, beetles etc. True, if we use herbicides and pesticides we will destroy that life. But, here’s the rub! We may not have life in our soil anyway. But please, I’m begging you all, don’t salt your weeds on top of this or I may have to start self injuring 😂
So we must create soil. How do we do this? The answer is that we oxygenate what we have by returning organic matter to the land. The best and most effective way to do this is by mowing weeds in, mulching with hay, throwing on composted matter and then resting the land so the magic can happen. Weeds with their lovely long taproots will rot in the ground and in so doing create air pockets so oxygen can get in. Earthworms, ants and mini beasts will tunnel in and further oxygenate the land and loosen it up for us. Loosening this soil means that when we do grow desirable plants for our horses, the roots can get down and anchor themselves firmly in the ground and be resistant to dislodging by hungry teeth. There will be an exchange of chemicals and nutrition by our soil life and our plant roots. Those more scientifically minded will know this as the soil food web. (Lots of info about it out there on google or YouTube if you want to know more).
In an ideal world we could roll out a round bale thinly, throw compost on and leave for a couple of seasons (not a few weeks, and then disappointedly exclaim that mulching doesn’t work), then we might overseed, wait for germination and start mowing to kill off the weeds before they go to seed and return even more organic matter back to the land. Oh and yes, we remove the horses so they don’t recompact the land. We all know this is the fundamental basis of rotational grazing practices or the dividing up of summer and winter grazing. This is because it allows the rest and recuperation period. I find tracks and loafing areas helpful in summer for fatties while I wait for the land to generate and pray for rain.
Rome certainly wasn’t built in a day and neither were the hanging gardens of Babylon! I bet it rained more there!
Only once we have done all that are we in a position to problem solve .......... Why isn’t the grass growing? Checklist ....
Ph? Climate? Any chemical deficiency? Hows compaction? Are we overgrazing? What are the nutritional needs of our horses? Do we have a varied species in our sward? Are we growing the correct grass species for our soil type? What plants do we need more or less of? How do we control plants that are vigorous and take over at the expense of the more desirable ones? How do we cope with wet land and winter compaction?
And perhaps the most awful question of all. Am I overstocked? If so am I running up a hill and needing to change the way I run my yard and land by installing loafing areas, (note I purposely didn’t say stables, another conversation for another day) and look at a style of management that can accommodate my overstocking?
Now we see what we are up against, it’s no wonder there is a need for pages like this. It’s not easy is it? Get composting folks!
And, by God, it’s fun! 😝
Now for some breakfast. Happy toiling everyone
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