Impossible!?

webbmeister · Jun 15, 2002

It has been several months now since our property is Wauconda was cleared, and it is slowly recovering and becoming a spectacularly beautiful place to be. We are pleased beyond description with our luck at coming upon this place. Heck, I've even given some though to renaming it from Valhalla to Eden (I'm not sure how Thor, the tractor, would fit in there though).

Part of the area cleared was frontage along a wetlands area finger of a lake. It is too soft to ride Thor over, too rough to use a hand mower, and a painstaking experience with a weed whacker. The area is roughly 20 X 150. The vegetation that grows there grows very fast! It takes 4 hours to mow the entire property, and then 2 more to do this area. The rest of the property gets mowed every 2-3 weeks. This area must be done every week or it becomes unmanageable.

Anyone have any ideas about how to control this growth? I burned it this spring, and I could "hear" it laughing at me. It grew right back in 2 weeks. Roundup? I'm lost, and worried. If it grows back, our view of "heaven" is gone.

I'm all ears and grass stains ...

Thanks,

Jim

beenthere · Jun 15, 2002

What I am hearing you say is that a burn every spring is not satisfactory. That the annual growth after a burn is still too much (high) to keep your view?

If so, round-up is the last resort. But some green seemingly would be desireable.

EdKing · Jun 15, 2002

I was under the impression that burning will actually make plants grow better in an area, and was used to improve the growth in an area, not hinder it.

dlabrie · Jun 15, 2002

How about sheep?david

Freds · Jun 15, 2002

Great question, Jim. I was going to post a similar question as I have an area that is getting away from me, too.
My excavator thinks that maybe the creek that runs behind my house and separates the RFM area from the BH area /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif was put in years ago and that the creek used to run in the high grassy areas shown. Sometimes there's standing water there and sometimes it's dry, but it's always soggy within 10 ft. of either side. Can't get my B7500 near as close as I thought I would without rutting it up and might as well have gotten a slightly larger tractor. This pic was taken from my neighbors drive, the bad area starts almost where the pine tree is at the right. I was thinking of taking a perforated pipe or two and trenching them in running from right to left towards the neighbors house and letting it drain into the grassy area at the left of the pic (which looks like a dried up creek bed that's sometimes wet and sometimes not and runs down to the creek where the treeline is). This area is a lot deeper than it looks, about 4 ft. down to 7 ft. where it adjoins the real creek. In a few more weeks I figure it will be mosquito heaven in there. If it ever stops raining for more than a few days at a time and the water table drops I think it will be a workable project, hopefully before cattails start popping up and they call it a wetlands /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif.
Last fall when I was looking at my property it was just dead yellow grass and the creek was a trickle, but with all this rain...
Any feedback? Will it work?
Fred