How I Prep for a Food Plot
I have just returned from another visit to my off-grid property. My main mission this trip was to plant a food plot for the animals and show you how to prep for a food plot.
Everything is doing awesome up there!
Last year, I was disappointed because many of my trees seemed to not be doing well, I wondered how things were going to work out. This year all my fears were put aside, as just about all my trees are putting on substantial new growth, and after 3 years are becoming established.
I am thrilled, all my hard work is coming to fruition.
This trip I finished the initial preparation for the spot I will park the RV I am going to buy, and live in through this next winter. Believe it or not, I am looking forward to living up there all by myself….even when it snows 4 feet.
The excavator makes prepping for a food plot a quick and easy job. Here is one I just put in that is thickly planted with both alfalfa, and clover seed.
This is a circle about 35 feet across, as that is about as far as the sprinkler will cover. I want as many of these as I have water to cover. Once established I could simply stop watering and many of the plants would survive year after year from just the natural rainfall.
I will actually continue to water heavily on occasion once these food plots are established. And, I am sure they will be productive. Not only will they feed wildlife, but they will help to take the animals minds off of some of the other things I will plant.
I am going back up there this next weekend, and will put in 2 more of these food plots…one planted with a bag of bird seed, and one will be planted heavily with wildflowers. I will do an update on this post when I get home from that trip.
On a side note…I am going to dig a small pond on the north side of where I am planting, and I am going to fill it with a one inch ram pump I will be building soon. About 200 feet or so away is a seasonal creek that runs about 2 months each spring. It drains a meadow that is maybe a half mile across, and flows like a small river at times.
There is a 15 foot drop right below where I will dig the pond, a ram pump will pump water about 7 feet vertically for every foot of drop of the source water, so I will get a good flow….maybe 6-8 gals a minute. and this will be 24 hours a day. Another cool thing about a ram pump is the water is constantly moving, so it should not freeze…as long as there is flowing water.
Even at the low end of 6 gals a minute that equates to 8640 gallons in 24 hours, all without any expenditure for energy. And it will do this every day for the 2 months.
Permaculture in a semi arid environment such as this, is all about keeping more water on the land.
Here are some random images from my visit…
Conclusion
That will do it for this installment. I am glad I decided to include this with this website, lets you know what I spend your seed monies on, and will be an ongoing record of what I am accomplishing up there.
I am also grow a cannabis strain called D’Qar there this year, you can read about that by following the link.
I love your comments, so leave me one…tell me your thoughts…
