Once folks had animals here they started bringing in more “just for a while!” and “We’ll pay you!” Some did pay. Others did not. In any event because of my foolish inability to say no, my poor pasture is grazed down to darn near nothing. I know. I finely got up the courage to try walking out there. I paid for it that night and the day after but I got a good look at the damage.
If the land is let alone it might recover on it’s own. I dearly wish I had the money to start digging swales and building berms to hold water on the land instead of letting the soil wash away into Lake Tawakoni. No. Plowing it up and planting seed will not do. The land slopes too much. Plowing it up will only help erosion. Broad casting seed and then mowing down the weeds to cover and protect them might work, but I find I can’t convince anyone else of that. Most who do offer to help suggest chemicals of various stripes. Poisons for weeds, fake chemical fertilizers, and possibly even poisons for bugs and snakes.
They think I’m nuts you know. Probably because I don’t think a few weeds are a bad thing, though I do admit I have far too many. My idea for weed control is less sexy, and slower than a big ol’ dose of herbicide.
My idea is to just keep the place mowed. Mow down the weeds before they make seeds. Then mow them down again when they sprout back up, and before they can make seeds again. Then keep doing it until only the low growing grasses that will hold the soil in place are thriving.
Why do I not think weeds are all that bad? Think about the weed. It grows anywhere, in any kind of soil, under drought conditions and flood. The weed sends down roots deeper than most of the other plants around it so that it can tap into water and nutrients the civilized plants can’t reach. . . And it brings those nutrients up to the surface. Knock down the weed. Let it compost in place and it will give those nutrients to the grasses you want to grow.
Besides, a patch or two of nice healthy weeds forms a haven for bugs. All kinds of bugs. Bad guys and the good guys that like to eat them. So the bad guy bugs get into your garden. If there’s a patch of weeds harboring bugs nearby then there will be good guy bugs handy to come eat the bad ones up. Besides some weeds produce seeds that birds like to eat as much as they do bad guy bugs.
The thing is though, it is a balancing act. You have to get the right balance of good and bad bugs, and of weeds and forage for these things to work together as they should. One way to do it is to just walk away and let nature take its course. The problem there is that it takes time. Time, during which, that much more valuable top soil washes into the local lake with the run off that could have stayed on your land, and watered your crops and animals.
That’s where people come in. Humans, the great manipulators of the environment. We’ve done a wonderful job of trashing the planet, the soil, the very air we breath. But there are simple, low tech, admittedly high labor, methods out there that can be used to save the air, the soil; and yes, even the planet.
No one likes these low tech ways to save the planet much though because they aren't quick, easy or even sexy. These low tech methods take thinking, planing, foresight, hard work and patience. All of which are, sadly in short supply nowadays.
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