ranunculus

Judith asked why the area at the Red Barn needs such a lot of work. Here is my very long winded answer.

The whole Red Barn area, the flat bits anyway, are a floodplain. Two streams, Red Barn Creek and Howell Creek mostly bring gravel, sand and rock down from the hills and deposit them. The soils on our place, going up more than 1,000 feet are highly erodible and all look as if they were old streams or possibly lake beds. Some of the areas are really high in Serpentine. Here is what Wiki says about Serpentine:
Soils derived from serpentine are toxic to many plants, because of high levels of nickel, chromium, and cobalt; growth of many plants is also inhibited by low levels of potassium and phosphorus and a low ratio of calcium/magnesium. The flora is generally very distinctive, with specialised, slow-growing species.

So this area, with its 100+ year old barn, has been used heavily by humans for more than 100 years, including overgrazing. The soils are very difficult to get any plant growth started because they are very rocky and sandy, in some places down tens of feet. Summer temps regularly get to 44C. The fields themselves were grazed into the ground for years, pretty much erasing any native grasses. Almost 100% of the things growing on those fields are invasive species: wild oat, star thistle, soft chest. I kind of like the soft chest, but the oat is not good pasture food for horses, the stems get too heavy really quickly. There is a little clover in some areas, mostly planted by me, but it is struggling with nutritional issues, thus the fertilizer.

Next year I will spread the piles of composted manure from the barn on various areas (it is too late to do so now). I think that will make a huge change in the fields. Heck in the one place where grass was scraped back and piled when we made the Arena, there has been excellent grass growth for 5 years! Amazing how even just a tiny bit more topsoil makes lasting changes.

The streams are in even worse condition than the fields.
Both stream had been straightened at some point which increases water speed and virtually eliminates any quiet areas where finer soil components could settle and encourage plant growth.

Seventeen years ago we fenced about half a mile of Howell Creek to keep the cows out. Everyone involved told us that this would allow vegetation to regrow within 5 to 8 years. In the upper areas where the stream still runs partly through hills, where soils were a bit better and the water table higher, there was some recruitment of willow and cottonwood. In the lower areas there was almost no recruitment for the first 11 or 12 years, then we got a few Valley Oak and Oregon Ashe trees, but no willow.

The stream is beginning to meander, which is really good! This year for the first time we have a big meander that dropped a lot of nice soil. Of course that is the corner that has had a LOT of work done to it; logs installed to turn the creek and willow "pillows" that are designed to help catch sediment.