re: Native Habitat Restoration for Wildlife

I’m going back up to the camp this weekend and I’ll try to get an update and better pictures of it if possible.

It was my first time to see it and I only know of one location on my property.

The neatest thing my wife and I experienced last year were the butterflies that were everywhere in late summer/early fall. There was goldenrod blooming everywhere and butterflies all over the place. It’s really cool.

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2.5 acre yard into something more natural and good for the wildlife

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I’m in the same position. I’d love to hear a future episode on this. Things to do on a sub-5 acre home site to promote wildlife habitat while still operating a functional home at the site.

Levee,

My wife would absolutely kill me if I put bees on the property. A bee/wasp flys by and she runs screaming. Lol

We got a case (24) bottles last year. They didn’t even call us this time around. I think they alternate between here and ND

Honey is really good, problem is that it crystallizes fast

Oh, we love honey. The problem is the honey maker. Lol. I will definitely run it by her. She loves being at the camp as much as I do and I am thankful for that.

I am in rural Mississippi. How would I even go about finding bee keepers?

Like Reb said, put it in really hot water and you can get it back to use. We buy local honey and that is what I do when ours crystalizes.

Sounds very much like what I’m trying to do with native plantings, orchard, garden, adjacent to bottomland woods, etc. I’ll checkout the local native planting groups. Appreciate the input.

Thank you for that input. Wife actually approved bee boxes as long as they aren’t close to the camp site.

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That will cost me less than $100 to plant each fall, plus seeds.

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I'm Jealous!!! I had to buy the drill...oh well

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I’m planning for mid/late September to plant. I’m going to spray 2 weeks before, then drill into the dead vegetation. Then roll it after it’s drilled.

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Take this as you will

1. ask the folks around you when they plant, what they plant, and how they plant (till, no till, drill, broadcast etc.) This is of paramount importance. If you dont find anyone else that drills, assume you can drill at the same time they plant. You'll get better seed to soil contact and have a higher yield of biomass, but you want to make sure the timing is right for certain plants like vetch etc.

2. Take soil samples of every spot you want to plant. Don't skip this step! take to the local MSU extension service and its like $7 a sample...the results will take 4-6 weeks, so do this now if you haven't.

3. use their prescription for lime immediately. We just cut the BS and asked CoOp to bring their lime truck....limed 1 ton of lime on each of ten food plot areas in one day. Cost about $700. Well worth it. If prescribed more than 1 ton per acre, note that they can only do 1 ton per field at a time effectivly...so it make take a few years to get the ammount prescribed. EX: we were prescribed 3 tons on most fields and are doing 1 ton per field for three years.

4. Use your prescription to special order the right amount of fertilizer. They can help you.

5. Figure out what kind of weeds you have in the field and what you are planting, then ask CoOp to suggest a herbicide to spray and for the acreage you're spraying.

6. spray, wait a week or two

7. you can bush hog now if you want, or just drill into your standing dead weeds/grass if its not too high. If you dont bush hog, you can roll at this point.

8. I would ask if you can run fertilizer through their drill first and if not, broadcast fertilizer the same day you plant....and do it on a day where you KNOW its about to rain or actually IS raining lol. Dont make the same mistake we did and plant...then have to wait a month for rain with rain in the forecast every afternoon.


Let me know if you need help scheduling...I have a Google Sheet that has formulas for calculating seed, fert and lime for specific acreages.