We're about to proceed with some clearing and seeding and, as a complete novice, I would sure appreciate some braintrust advice.
The roughly three acre area to be cleared is second growth on a sandy (some clay) loam base that tends to be acidic. Small oaks, poplar, rhodys, locus and scrub. Not too many rocks on this particular site. Topography is hilly (we're in NC mountains), but tractorable sp?, facing south. 3400 ft elev.
Our basic plan is to mark the few trees and bushes we want to save and have a dozer, hoe, and truck crew come in and clear everything else, saving what material we can. They will dig a hole and burn off tops and stumps, then cover and promise to then make sure the area is relatively root and rock free.
We're then thinking in terms of disking and prepping ground including adding whatever lime etc., might be recommended, then seeding, dragging harrow, fence or such to cover seed and spreading straw.
I've talked with the local farm supply house, but still have questions as to best seed mix. We are about two to three years away from actually putting this area to use. We plan to use part of it as future pasture (first for goats and eventually for horses) and the other part as vineyards.
Current thinking is to put in some soil nourishing mix, say clover, some rye, fescue and orchard grass, wildflowers?, ...then mow it for a couple years and perhaps reseed to help it get thicker.
I've heard that some grasses are either good for or bad for horses, but I'm having trouble narrowing it down to an ideal mix for what we are doing. Do we need different mixes for each field?
Experienced perspectives, caveats and suggestions will be much appreciated!
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