To make maintaining an abandoned farm easier and require less time and money, some things need to be thought of in advance. Of course, we talk about it with gardening expert Inge Auželiene «Farm Landscape» teacher. He advised where to start to organize the farm while preserving what already has value.
First step: overview of available plants
It generally begins with tidying up the greenery of the farmhouse to create a setting similar to a blank canvas. And that’s the worst thing you can do.
You should begin by observing and noting the plants thriving on the farm. If you find it hard to spot and name them, especially if you did not plant them, ask someone more knowledgeable for assistance. Naturally, carrying out a global plant survey is simpler when the plants have leaves and flowers, as it will be easier to recognize them.
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Tim Richardson: Garden designers will cure global warmingThe list of current plants will help you figure out which ones are important and which are not worth your time. You will notice that a young birch is tucked away among the modest shrubs, and over here is that unusual bush: it turns out to be a hazel tree full of nuts. Before you start cleaning, you need to know what exists on your farm.
Moreover, by understanding the plants, you can anticipate how the farmhouse’s appearance will shift over the years. After writing down the plants in a table, make another column where you can note their future height. You can gather this information online or in a plant guide, within the details of a specific plant. After all, you need to assess not just how the plant looks today but also what it will be like in 10 years.
Use plants wisely on Skype
The next step is to divide the farm into zones and mark on your floor plan what you want to have and see. Mark things like parking, recreation area, mark areas for plant arrangements (don’t rush to detail them). This planning is necessary to know which areas should remain empty and which areas will grow. If you feel unsure and want to check your vision with a specialist, I. Auželienė guides you along the way and helps you make the most important decisions during the courses.
And only when the initial zoning has already been created, look where the existing facilities go.
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How to make branches bloom and which branches are suitable for thisFor example, if you want to cover some not-so-pleasant images, you should buy new seedlings and wait for them to grow and cover those images. But it is more convenient to use existing systems for this. Even low-value bushes can be pruned, thinned and used as a barrier. For this reason we recommend that you plan first, foresee the functional zones, the main groups of plants and only then clean the soil.
Don’t rush to cut old plants, especially tall ones, advises I. Auželienė. Until the new plants grow, the existing ones can perform a blocking function: they can protect the plants from the hot sun and block the wind. Without mature plants, the ground is empty, it is overheated by the sun, the winds are stronger, birds have nowhere to nest, and you have nowhere to hang your hammock. It is possible that we will remove those old trees, but not immediately, not during the ongoing transformation, but in 5 or 10 years, when the new trees are old enough to completely replace the old ones.
So, after zoning and drawing up a plan, you will leave some trees and shrubs permanently, while others will perform a temporary function and will be removed after a few years.
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Ilze Ruksane: Peonies and marigolds are back in fashion in LatviaIntelligent management of an abandoned farm in different seasons
Managing an abandoned farmhouse doesn’t happen in a day. Don’t rush and do the work in stages, especially if the area is large and you have little time. Extend this «pleasure» to different seasons to make it easier.
Summer is the best time to plan your work. It is at this time that plants have leaves, so you can identify them, list them and decide their future fate. Inge advises: «In summer you can mark the trees and bushes you leave with ropes. When they lose their leaves and it’s time to work, you will recognize them without too much effort.»
On a farm with many trees and bushes, it is best to do the work in two stages, because everything can be too much at once. Here are the phases:
- The first step is to cut the above-ground part of the plants: it is best to do this in autumn or winter, when the plants have lost their leaves. The most important thing is that by spring, when new shoots begin to burst, you should have done this cleaning.
- At the second stage, pull out all unnecessary roots so that further work goes smoothly. The best time for this operation is spring, before soil preparation work begins.
Intelligent use of branches
I. Auželienė suggests cutting old branches and using them later for mulch. Just a note: Do not use fresh wood for mulch as it can slow plant growth. The wood must last a long time, so it will be suitable for such use. Here everything works very well: it will still take a while before the farm is cleaned up, and the cut wood will already be ready for mulching. With it you can even fill beautiful paths in the nursery.
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How to hide covers well so as not to ruin the view of the courtyard / Yellow wheelbarrowIf you don’t have much enthusiasm for recycling this way, you can donate roots and branches to green waste collection sites.
Important! Don’t even think about burning those old roots or branches anywhere in the yard, because it’s against the law.
Managing an abandoned farm won’t be complete without weeding
If the farm is small, the fight against weeds is simple: weed, weed with a fork – in other words, get exercise.
If your farm is very large or you don’t have time to wait for weeds to die, a more serious solution is needed. Often with the help of technology the soil is leveled, but the roots of weeds still remain. Inge recommends uprooting them, because the roots of perennial weeds interfere with planting and therefore can darken the plants.
How to destroy weeds in larger areas of the farm, the solutions can be as follows:
- Spraying with chemical means;
- Select mechanically.
If you want to mechanically stop the spread of weeds, it will be more difficult, but certainly possible. One of the ways is to leave the land fallow for a year, that is, repeatedly grind and mechanically destroy weeds, and only after a year sow new crops. Milling is a mechanical method in which the soil is broken up and then leveled (with a tractor). Just keep in mind that if you don’t rake the weeds first, they won’t go away – some of them only multiply when the roots are crushed. Therefore, it is not an easy way to eradicate weeds, but it is effective if you need to prevent them from spreading.
In these cases the cultivation of siderate crops can also help. For example, after grinding, you can sow white mustard, which will improve the quality of the soil and prevent weeds from appearing so quickly.
Repair an abandoned lawn
Maintaining an abandoned farm won’t make you happy if there isn’t a nice smooth lawn in the center of the farm. And the opposite happens: in an abandoned farmhouse, instead of a lawn, there is a tuft of weeds. We often think that we need to do it all over again: destroy this old lawn and fix it as it is.
However, if you do not look at it pedantically and do not set extremely high requirements, there is no need to do this. Read the article in which we recorded the progress of the work
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