Homesteading: Working the Land

Ok, so you've found a piece of land and you now want to begin developing it.  Maybe you plan to make space for a house, some sheds or a barn, a drive, and a few crops of some kind or a greenhouse.  These are reasonable and often necessary developments.

One things to consider, before you begin to rid the land of all those wild and troublesome trees and shrubs, is the value of trees and shrubs and other native plants.  You can save yourself considerable trouble and money later on if you carefully plan which trees and shrubs to remove and which ones to leave in place.  In fact, you may want to simply relocate some of the smaller trees and shrubs, so that you can better control soil erosion and other factors.  Pay special attention to natural slopes and to any grades you plan to introduce for drainage.  Never try to solve one small or merely potential problem by creating for yourself many or much larger problems later on.  Placing shrubs and even trees along drainage slopes can save you a lot of work and money in the years to come.

If you've purchased land that enjoys good rain, it's likely that the abundance of natural vegetation in your area has a lot to do with that.  Stripping the land of trees, shrubs and other ground cover can alter the amount of rainfall an area receives — and not in a good way.  Granted, the parcel of land you own may not be large enough to trigger climatic changes in the whole region, but taken together, your land and the other properties around you do make a difference.  And the changes do not take decades to show.

For this reason, you may want to consider clearing only what is really necessary, and only as it becomes necessary.  If you plan to put in crops, for example, then wait to clear the land until you actually begin preparing an area to plant.  And as you use the land for crops, give serious thought to not only crop rotation, but also the seasons when the land might otherwise be allowed to lie fallow.  If you have not done much thinking about such things, now is a great time to start your research.  Take good care of the land and the land will take better care of you.

Bare ground may be less work for you, but it's not good for the land itself, or for the climate as a whole.  Areas that you will not be using right away should be allowed, if at all possible, to produce their nature ground cover.  If you need to clear out an overabundance of  trees and large shrubs in order to help protect grazing animals, for example, then try to leave a reasonable balance of shades trees and cooling shrubs in place. 

And watch out for the grass.  Over-grazing an area to the extent that all grass is destroyed will not serve you, your livestock or the land itself.  Rotate pastures and holding pens to allow natural growth to continue and even flourish.  After all, you want to make a profit five and ten years from now, as well as next year.  And even if your land is in an area that gets plenty of rainfall, the value of the surviving plant life makes a difference.  That is, you don't want to destroy truly valuable grazing material (especially if it was already there naturally) with a less valuable, but hardier, strain of grass and/or other vegetation that offers little or no nutrition. 

The Natural Way

The more natural your land remains, the less work you will need to invest in it.  It may may require some thought and time and labor and money right now to set up a more natural system of living or farming, but the payoff will be much greater for a much longer time.  Knowing the kinds of and varieties of vegetation already native to your area that can work for you is well worth your while.  Spending time chatting with local and regional plant nurseries, and county extension offices, and even environmental departments of nearby universities can prove time well spent.  You may even learn about student programs in the area and be able to participate (and benefit from) such programs.

If your land has never been developed before, you may less work ahead of you, in setting up a more natural system.  But if you've bought someone else's place, then you may need to spend some time undoing some of the "progress" made by others who worked the land before you.  Not that everything must be done in the first year or two. 

Helpful Resources     Livestock For Sale

Income from the Land