While
I like native plants and animals, there are times and places that one will want a cleared
area around the rural house. Safety from brush fires requires a cleared area for access to
the house for emergency equipment and personnel. One will also want to reduce the amount
of flammable vegetation within thirty-five to fifty feet from the house. Personal, pet and
livestock safety is another reason to reduce wild vegetation near the house. Poisonous or
spiny plants can result in large losses to the livestock or pet owner, and tragedy and
heartbreak to the family when a family member gets injured on these plants. Wild predatory
animals will tend to stay away from cleared areas in daylight. They sense their
vulnerability in these open areas. If you live in an area with rattlesnakes, bears, lions
or coyotes it is a fair bet to say that it is beneficial to have some clear area between
the house and the brush.
If one desires to remove the vegetation
from the house area one need not resort to sprays and chemicals. Nor does one need to
strain ones back and muscles removing the vegetation in a fast manner. I believe in
working slow and steady at something like this, but be persistent. Work at it diligently,
yet with forethought and planning. Understand the lifecycle of the plants you are trying
to eradicate, and work at them with a steady persistence. For large scale cactus removal I
would recommend using a tractor you own or rent, or hiring a neighbor to scrape it all
together with a tractor into several piles, trying to avoid killing the plants you wish to
keep. This will best be done with a small tractor, not a large one.
One can also find some people who will be
willing to take it down by hand. Just keep cutting the pads down and piling them up into
many smaller piles. Now either way you are left with piles of cactus. These will just grow
on and on if left alone. So you need to kill them all, yet not have to haul them away.
Just cover them all with a foot or two of fresh horse manure. They will eventually rot
(after six months to a year). But when they all are rotted down they will be great
fertilizers for the soil.
After removing the tops you will still have roots that will want to
regrow, you have to kill them also. You can laboriously dig them out, or take the easy way
and let them rot naturally. But they will keep putting out small leaves all the time for
months. Just knock them over when you see them. Eventually you will kill off all the roots
by starving them. Constantly depriving them of what they need to continue growing.
Meanwhile seed the area with some native grasses. Most will not
grow, but some might. As the next year goes by you will find yourself with cleared land
with piles of compost scattered here and there. Next spring these could be ready sources
of nutrients and humus as well as mulch material. And they will be readily accessible for
use all over the area.
With this system one can do the work with less work. It just takes longer. It
does not all need to be done all fast either. One can slowly expand the area worked as you
go away from the house. Just make sure you keep up with the steady work afterwards of
making sure no leaves grow back from either the roots, or the manure covered piles.
This method can be used to remove virtually any kind of brush from an area. Just cut it or
uproot it, and pile it together. Composting or burning can reduce the volume, and perhaps
result in good compost, or ashes. It is in effect a variation on the old 'slash and burn'
agriculture used for millennia. It can be sustained forever if organic methods are used.
The soil will actually improve year after year. Cover crops, importation of animal manure
from sources where they would otherwise be concentrated resulting in high pollution levels
localized in those areas. This way the manure is more spread all about. The manure will
react with the brush adding nitrogen to it, and the brush will reduce the high nitrogen
content of the manure. In all you wind up with clear land in a year. And almost no spines
in the area after the plants are initially cut.
It is at any rate a bit of work. And
it should be approached with care. Arm ones self properly with long sleeved denim shirts
or good jackets, goggles and gloves. And a hand held brush cutter might be good for
cutting the plants.
Take your time, avoid too much
hard work at once. Use hired labor if you must. Clear the area around the house bit by bit
as the years go by. Take your time, be safe.
E-Mail
Rivenrock Gardens
Organic Philosophy
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Last updated 28 April, 2000