Creating my Pasture

[jayste]

Great thread and job Eddie! As usual, I always enjoy following one of your jobs. It's good to see you getting the family involved. Unfortunately, I never had the patience for that but looking back wished I did. Looking forward to the next phase.

Jay

[EddieWalker]

Thanks Jay.

Today, I finished the pasture and it's now up to Mother Nature to do the rest.

I bought the fertilizer and seed yesterday. The forecast all week long has been for rain today, so I've been motivated to get this done before the rain arrived. After spreading the fertilizer, I disked it in. It got dark on my last night while disking, so I just turned on the lights and kept on going. Not long after it was totally dark out, I came around by the deer feeder and saw a wild hog out in the middle of the field that I had already disked up. I kept going along my path, and when I came back again, he was still out there. Since he hadn't moved, I was questioning myself on whether it was really there or not. Then on the third pass, he was walking, but still didn't seem to care that I was there. On my fourth pass, he was still there. I told myself that if he was there the next time I swung around, I was going to the house to get my pistol and see how close I could get to him. Of course, he was gone on my fifth pass.

This morning, I finished disking the area, then spread my seed. I planted hulled bermuda seed, which is very, very small. To help spread it out, I mixed it at about ten pounds of seed with 100 pounds of kids play sand.

Then I planted peas in my food plot. I just broadcast them.

I have a drag that I made a few months ago with removable cement blocks. I wanted to remove the blocks to make it light so that it wouldn't bury the seed, but just sort of set it into the ground and smooth things out a bit. Fire ants took over the drag, so I had to deal with killing them first. Then I got to wrenching on the bar that holds the blocks in place, which was tougher then I had anticipated. I abandoned that I plan and built another light duty drag just for this out of scrap that I had laying around.

It took allot longer then I thought it would, but it's done, and that's all that matters. You cannot tell where I dug from the areas that I left undisturbed. It all ties together nicely, and to my eye, looks natural.

Eddie

[CurlyDave]

I wish I had half your energy.

Looks really good btw.

[cowboy357]

It Looks Great Eddie , Cant wait for Perty Green pics . , Bob

[jinman]

Nice job, Eddie. Where did you buy your fertilizer? Did you find it was really expensive? I bought a bag last week, and it was about $23 at Walmart. I expected it to be about 1/2 that much. Do you mind me asking what you paid? Did you get it at Atwoods?

[EddieWalker]

Jim,

I bought the 13-13-13 fertilizer in 50 pound sacks from a feed store named Flemmings in Lindale for $16 each. I priced the exact same thing, same manufacturer too, at Atwoods in 40 pound sacks for $15. I looked at Walmart, but they were more expensive. I was told by my neighbor that it's cheaper to have the fertilizer guy come out with a truck to spread it, but you have to make an appointment for them and he wasn't open when I drove by there Friday morning. I decided that if it was cheaper, and I don't know if it was or not, it wouldn't be by enough to make me want to wait on them. I have a very busy schedule coming up and had the time to get it done now.

My soil analysis said that I needed 50 pounds of N and P per acre, and 75 pounds of K per acre. 13-13-13 at eight sacks per acre gives me just over 50 pounds of N and P per acre. 400 pounds times .13 equals 52 was the math on this. Then I bought the sack of 0-0-62 at $50 for a 50 pound sack. I was doing just over 2 acres, so I figured that wold give me the extra 25 pounds per acre that I needed. I was really low on my soil analysis for the K portion. This sounded about right to me using simple math.

Time will tell if I got it right or not. I think I did, or at least I'm real close, but I'm too new to this to know for sure.

Eddie

[jinman]

Eddie, I bought a 33 lb bag of 13-13-13 at Walmart and it was around $23. I'm sure glad I didn't buy more. I told Kathy that seemed very expensive and from your prices, I know that's true. I've looked at TSC here, and all they seem to have is high nitrogen lawn fertilizer. I think a trip to Atwoods in Wichita Falls is the way to go. I'm sure glad you told me about that store. I like it.

[jimmyj]

Awesome job. Your projects are so big and impressive it's a treat to see them coming along.

Your prices on fertilizer are about half of what we're getting charged up here. I was shocked.

Eddie, how is your soil structure? Is all that red dirt and clay good to grow in? We have about a foot of topsoil and then really crappy sand or clay underneath. I've never been to Texas (but don't hold it against me please) and it looks like you've got such nice deep soil.

[scott_vt]

Originally Posted by EddieWalker

I have Peyton spray paint it on the dirt. He loves this!!! If it's down 4 inches, I tell him to spray a 4 at that point. We go around the area, I take measurements, he sprays the number. Then I get on the dozer and try to spread out the dirt to the thickness of those numbers. I'm just eyeballing it, so I'm not very accurate, but I'm close enough for roughing it in.

Eddie

Good Mornin Eddie,
Im betting that Peyton is having a ball ! What a great way to grow up !

Your a great Dad !

BTW, super project, keep the pics coming.

BBTW, would you have any pics of that walnut mantel that you were telling me about ?

[EddieWalker]

Jim,

Atwoods is my first choice for buying most things. I thing Tractor Supply has a better bolt and nut section, but it's not so much better that I'll drive past Atwoods to get there. Walmart is another store that you only buy certain things from them. I'm very disappointed in all their garden department. The selection and choices for fertilizer were very limited. Have you gone to any farm supply stores in your area? The one that I like is always very consistent in their prices and I really like how I can buy seed by the pound with them. The other places that I've been to will only sell it by the sack. Pure Bermuda by the 50 pound sack is in the $300 range, which is more then I need or want to spend.

Jimmy,

While shopping around at the stores, I was seeing prices from .40 cents a pound for 13-13-13 on up to almost a buck a pound. Home Depot and Lowes were very expensive, as was Walmart. They had the big name brands, which might be part of the reason, but it could also be that I'm not comparing apples to apples. I don't really know what ingredients are in the sacks to get their ratings. I'm taking a chance with the cheap stuff, and hoping for the best. Since it's just a pasture that is just to catch water that will run into my big pond, I'm not too worried about the protein content of that grass. It will never be cut for hay, or anything along those lines.

The soil is pretty acidic. I got lucky in this are and didn't require very much lime. Since it was such a low requirement on my soil analysis, I'm holding off on the lime until fall. I might not do it then either, it just depends on how the grass comes out and if I feel the need to try to improve on it. Bermuda likes acid soil, as does my native Bahia.

I don't see allot of farming going on around here. There is allot of hay grown here and plenty of cattle. We're the Rose Capital of the nation with half of all roses in the nation grown in the area. Roses like our soil!!!! I don't have top soil, it's just clay and more clay. To build, you just sort of scrape off the grass and level it off. No digging down and hauling off topsoil is needed. Some places are all sand, which really sucks for growing grass. The moisture doesn't stay in the sand and there is very little nutrients in the sand. I have clay, I know a guy down the road from me, about two miles away that has all sand on his place.

At first, I didn't like clay. Now that I've got a feel for it and worked with it, I really like it. While low areas will hold water and stay muddy, high areas dry out real quickly and shed water when it rains. I hate walking or driving through it when it's muddy, but that's mostly because it packs to your boots or tires. The native plants love it and I'm in a permanent battle to stop the trees from taking over. Trees are one of the most aggressive weeds that I have to deal with. In some areas, it's the pines, others areas it's the oaks, and almost everywhere, the sweetgums are trying to take over.

Texas is about as varied a state as you will ever find. Being as large as it is, we have some pretty extreme changes all over the state. In my area, it's thick jungle with allot of pines. From March till December, it's green and lush. Mowing grass is big business here!!!! If you drive an hour West, it changes to more open land, scrub oaks and the pines stop growing. It's almost a line that you cross. One minute it's kind of ugly out, then it gets green and heavily forested. When I tell people about what it looks like here, I tell them to think of Louisiana or the other Southern States for an idea of what East Texas is like.

Saying all that, my favorite part of the state is the Hill Country that's sort of West of Austin and North-West of San Antonio. Totally different area, but just amazing in how beautiful it is.

Eddie