What have you done to your Branson today?

[Cougsfan]

Nice video pstg. Looks like you used your tiller less like a tiller and more like a flail mower that is set too low. It did a good job of cleaning the place up.

 

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Managed to get a video using the rototiller this week working on tight quarters. Hope you'll enjoy it.

@ptsg - this is brilliant! I've got a small orchard with really lumpy ground that's always bugging me and you've definitely inspired me, when it stops being such a boggy mess I think I'll do the same! (we have very wet winters, perhaps a month of very pleasant spring, and then it gets to scorching hot and bakes my ground hard...)

 

[ptsg]

Nice video pstg. Looks like you used your tiller less like a tiller and more like a flail mower that is set too low. It did a good job of cleaning the place up.

Thanks Cougsfan! Well, the ground was very hard and compacted due to not being touched for about a year and also I keep driving there with the tractor and backhoe that are both very heavy. So the tiller doesn't really wants to go deep on the first pass. On the second pass it goes down a bit more and if the ground is a bit wet, it'll leave a beautiful finish.

@ptsg - this is brilliant! I've got a small orchard with really lumpy ground that's always bugging me and you've definitely inspired me, when it stops being such a boggy mess I think I'll do the same! (we have very wet winters, perhaps a month of very pleasant spring, and then it gets to scorching hot and bakes my ground hard...)

This is a nice solution to make the ground even. With two, maybe three passes it will even things out.

With the ground just wet enough, it will leave a very nice finish.

 

[Branson Bob]

Nice video PTSG.

This past weekend it was dry enough in the soil pit to get some nice soil to bring up to the meadow for some spring bare root planting.

 

[Branson Bob]

Also I used an A-frame level to find a contour line in the meadow and used the box blade to cut a terrace. The terrace is sloped uphill to retain water and prevent sheeting. I could have used a swale and berm system but decided that I'm going to use terraces instead. This terrace will be for trees. Lower down we'll eventually plant grapes.

 

[ericm979]

Nice trees. Is that a Madrone on the right side of the last picture?

 

[Branson Bob]

Nice trees. Is that a Madrone on the right side of the last picture?

Hey Eric.

I think it depends on who you ask. Sometimes madrone is used interchangeably with manzanita but our trees are more commonly called manzanitas around the Sierra foothills whereas madrone sometimes refers to a larger coastal tree.

 

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Hey Eric.

I think it depends on who you ask. Sometimes madrone is used interchangeably with manzanita but our trees are more commonly called manzanitas around the Sierra foothills whereas madrone sometimes refers to a larger coastal tree.

I'm also in the sierra foothills; we have both on our property - and they're considerably different species.

They look superficially similar, having the same color bark, but Manzanita is a bush (which I've seen grow up to 12-15') with small round leaves (slightly chalky or pastel) and Madrone is definitely a tree with a fairly straight trunk and smooth somewhat shiny broader leaves, and I don't recall Madrone fruiting berries either.

 

[ericm979]

Madrone do have berries but they're smaller than Manzanita berries and they're usually way up in the tree. I have never seen a Manzanita that big. It might be the angle of the picture but it looks at least 30' high.

 

[Branson Bob]

Madrone do have berries but they're smaller than Manzanita berries and they're usually way up in the tree. I have never seen a Manzanita that big. It might be the angle of the picture but it looks at least 30' high.

The photo is misleading. The manzanita in the photo is about 15' high which is the top end for all the manzanitas on the property.