Reclaiming land

On my property there are several heap piles where the previous owner had the timber cut and the leftovers pushed into piles scattered about the property. He never got around to burning the dead piles and they have all been taken over by privy hedge and other greenery that refuses to burn. Is there anything that will kill this growth so that I can get the piles dry enough to burn? Roundup will kill the small stuff, but it will not kill the hedge and some of the small trees that have started to grow.

Can you use a tractor with loader to push around the edges and break up the piles? It just seems that trying to chemically kill ALL the stuff would be harder/more expensive than breaking it up mechanically. How big are the piles? Picture?

I've pushed most of it up as much as I can considering the piles were growing for a few years before I bought the place.

Another pile. For reference the tractor to the right is a 325 hp John Deere 9200

Another.

These are some of the smaller piles and most of them are gone as I am doing some farm expansion and they were in the way of the dirt work, but it should give you an idea.

Are they all scrap boards? That is the "slabs"? I find these hard to burn in a pile anyways. I recommend a small fire started with real wood, diesel fuel & a leaf blower [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]

Michael,
Nice looking piece of property. The piles look pretty green: Tough to burn, as you have found. And I imagine it would be hard to get even distribution to the roots of all the stuff growing to kill it. If it was my place, I'd probably rip apart the pile with my backhoe and move it a short distance, let it sit whatever time it taks to get good and dry, then burn it (or bury it). It's amazing how fast stuff grows that you don't want.

The previous owner of my property had a house trucked away a few years before I bought. This left behind a couple porch slabs and extensive foundations with stem wall. I reused the porch slab in lieu of pouring a slab to hold some propane tanks I reused the cinder blocks of the stem wall. Recently I got a dozer onto the remaining foundation materials. They loved concrete and used a lot but not much rebar and not well placed. All the foundations ere removed and placed into an erosion gully along with dirt with high debris content.

In the picture you can see the edge of the driveway in the extreme foreground. Previously the land next to the driveway was at a considerably higher elevation giving a steep drop off down to the driveway level. There was a 5 wire barbed wire fence along the high side of the elevation change. I took the fence out and had the dozer reduce the slope along the side of the drive. The HUGE dirt pile generated was used to fill the site where the foundation had been as it was quite a depression.

In the picture, all the areas in the fore and midground (with short cover) were seeded 5 days ago with wheat, annual winter rye grass, arrow leaf clover, and turnips. The wheat came up in well in 2 days. I'm still waiting on everything else. I even did a "hail Mary" and sprinkled some Wrangler (Bermuda grass) seed.

Why turnips? Because a buddy was doing 6-7 deer plots in prep for hunting season and had to drive right past me between some of them so while he was up he ran over my bare spot with his mixture of seeds and fertilizer and I used a hand crank broadcaster for the rye and Bermuda. Hopefully I'll get good coverage before it rains enough to be an erosion problem. I have over two weeks of light duty left before I can get out to spread out some straw. Maybe It will not be needed.

Still wondering about the turnips? Deer love them! We'll get a bonus from the turnips. This fall/winter we'll get to see deer eating turnips in the front yard if we keep the cattle out and away from the turnips.

Of the pecan trees in the picture, two are fairly small. The house that was removed was past and to the left of the left small tree. You can see the "rows" of wheat coming up where the house used to be. Hopefully enough growth and root development will take place along side the driveway and dirt will not wash away too bad.

I too have several piles of brush left from the previous owner and have ignored them. They make excellent habitat for critters. I have added several piles of my own from using a dozer to clear brush. I may burn some of these (what part will burn) and scatter the dirt trapped in them a bit. Will eventually go in with FEL and forks and or bucket and try to consolidate the bigger chunks and stumps for a fire.

Pat

You can use a spray called Garlon. It will kill trees up to 6" DBH it used as directed.