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Windbreak

Description

The windbreak follows the west perimeter of StellaLou farm, and the north side of the orchard.

Illustration

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The windbreak transition will likely be one of our most long term interventions as there is so much space and so many steps to the process. The windbreak serves to protect StellaLou Farm, its infrastructure and wildlife, from wind and what the wind carries from neighboring farms. It is necessary to not only protect young and annual plantings, but also the humans working the land.

 

The inherited windbreak is two rows of trees in most places, which have been strangled by invasive plants, primarily bittersweet, honeysuckle, and multiflora rose. We are using a combination of goats, power tools, and hand tools to remove the invasive plants and dead trees. We are replanting the windbreak in small sections that we can maintain. 

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Process and Timeline

  1. Observe (2013 to present): When our windbreak isn't functioning.  Windbreak fail, part two.  As you can see in these two video clips, there is very little protection provided by the windbreak. This is a huge undertaking for us, and while we have cleared small areas to plant a few new trees, our process is really just in the beginning stages now. We have been able to observe the wind, sunlight, and interaction of species over the past years, including how any new plantings are once again quickly consumed by multiflora, bittersweet, and honeysuckle vine.

  2. Clearing (2021): While clearing of fallen dead trees has been ongoing for some years, and moments of clearing by hand have occurred, we didn't really get aggressive in this step until we took home our two goats, Neptune and Nemo. We use a portable electric fence to bring the goats to the windbreak in sections. It takes them 4-7 days to eat the suffocating underbrush. At that point we can go into the area after them, and cut back the vine and brambles at the base. They eliminate a huge amount of foliage which we then do not have to dispose of, and give us access.

  3. Research (2022): We took a Miyawaki course at Horn Farm and plan on using this in at least one area in the fall to replant. This will involved significant ground preparation. We are currently research the large diversity of tree and shrub species we would like to put in our first Miyawaki plot in the windbreak.

  4. Planting Prep (2023): We have a selected area of windbreak that after a storm in 2022, left us with just two dead conifers. These have been cleared out and we are beginning ground prep for the planting this roughly 16x16' area. The final list of plants transforming this area into a Miyawaki plot is based on the needs and resources of the space (plants that will enjoy the environment: wind tolerant being our biggest need), and what is easily available (through live-staking and using suckers from plants we already have, and purchasing through nurseries). In January we made our purchases of all 1' and under saplings. This was a pretty expensive endeavor and we have plans to use cuttings from these new trees as they grow for future Miyawaki (and other) plantings so that the investment grows.

What We Have Learned & What's Next...

We will begin one or two sections of Miyawaki plantings. These incredibly dense and diverse planting technique takes place in well prepared soil plots. The trees and shrubs in these plots grow much faster and healthier than traditional plantings. This can be seen at the test sites at Horn Farm in York, PA, where we gained our information about this method.

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Next up is completing the ground preparations of the first Miyawaki plot, at the northeast corner of windbreak above the orchard. We will be using 3" of compost on the 16x16" site. Compost is made here from our garden and kitchen scraps, the on site brewery's spent grain, wood chips, and coop litter. This will be then be broadforked, covered in 3" of straw and leaf litter, broadforked again, and then laid with woodchips before planting.

Plant List

Mature species:

  • Black walnut

  • Crab apple

  • Sassafrass

  • Choke cherry

  • Oak

  • Norway Spruce

  • Hickory

Newly planted species:​

  • Little leaf linden

  • Burr oak

  • Yellow hornbeam

  • White spruce

  • Service berry

  • American linden

  • Black locust

Species chosen for 2023 Windbreak Miyawaki:​

  • Snowberry (wind tolerant)

  • Black chokeberry (food source)

  • Maple leaved viburnum (shade tolerant)

  • St John's wort (have on site)

  • Red twig dogwood (have on site)

  • Buttonbush (have on site)

  • Ninebark (have on site) 

  • Bottlebrush buckeye (erosion control, pollinators)

  • Spicebush (food source, have on site)

  • Hazelnut (food source, have on site)

  • Fringetree (beauty)

  • Crabapple (food source, have on site)

  • Paw paw (have saplings in need of home, food)

  • Eastern redbud (have on site, pollinators)

  • Eastern hophornbeam 

  • Boxelder (disease and pest resistant)

  • Hackberry (wind tolerant)

  • Black gum (pollinators)

  • Red maple 

  • Silver maple (wind tolerant)

  • Sugar maple

  • Bur oak (wind tolerant)

  • Sycamore (have saplings in need of home)

  • White pine (wind tolerant)

  • Shagbark hickory (food)

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