All these Rocks
 

I've got around 13 acres. 3-4 acres of that is pretty much not usable as it is in cedar trees and rock. Rocks, lots of rocks. Rocks range from pebbles to sizes as big as a car, no top soil to speak of for the most part (just around the base of the older cedar trees).

What could I use this land for outside of picking up rocks to make flower gardens and raised beds for my wife? How can I develop it into something that is beneficial for wildlife or farm animals?

I've thought about contacting the county/local city and see if I could get them to dump wood chips from their tree crews on it from time to time. I have a tractor and could spread the stuff easily enough. Over a period of 3-5 years do you think massive amounts of wood chips/mulch would help this area out?

Any ideas would be appreciated in helping me do something with this land. Oh, I am in TN about 20 miles South of Nashville.

Just looking for ideas.

Depending on the stone it could have decent value.

At the least it does have some value.

You need to know what your looking at though.

Run of the mill stone here is 75 a ton bottom dollar, doesn't take much to equal a ton.

We have a rock and gem show coming up soon, you might be surprised what some stuff sells for!

Other then that I suppose best you can do is haul in all the organic stuff you can.

You will want something with nitrogen though to go with those wood chips.

Good market here for cedar fence posts, Amish get 5 bucks a piece.

I would suspect that those rocks are covering up more rocks. Contact the county extension agent to find out which geological area and soil type you have. You may find it surprising that back in the 1930s the soils were surveyed with a lot of accuracy down to the quarter acre. Chances are you have limestone or chert. Either of those can make digging - even with a backhoe - amazingly difficult.

Truly massive amounts of chips can change the soil. There is a botanical forest in South Florida where the owner literally piled chips five feet deep building up his land to grow rare trees. He also put in a massive amount of work, year 'round for years.

This one???
 

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http://www.mineralevents.com/flyers/2014midland.pdf

Or was it this one? http://www.mgmsrockclub.com/

If your rocks are moss rock, you could be sitting on a gold mine. Moss rock around here sells for a good amount of money - can't remember how much off the top of my head, but it was cost prohibitive for me to buy.

CK3 its in Clio.

I think I may of missed it.

Goats would love all those rocks! Can you imagine the fun and games they would have?!!! :) Happy goats

If it's close enough to your home or roadway to get veggies loaded away, consider hiring a backhoe in to clean up a useable sized plot and bring in all the organic matter (grass, leaves, manure, old hay and woodchips etc) that you can find. You can grow some veggies like squashes right in this without waiting long.
Could become the most productive part of the homestead if done right.

Around here landscapers use big rocks a lot - I've seen an in-ground swimming pool with around 30 big rocks up against a bank and it really looks great - you may want to contact some and see if any would be interested in getting these big stones - the small ones can be used to build a wall some where on your own place

Take all the cedar trees off and sell them.
See if anyone is interested in the Rocks. Sell as many as possible.
Then start dumping wood chips. Tons of wood chips!
You might also want to add some clay soil if you can get your hands on some and layer it with the chips. (fill dirt?)
Then either plant lots of nut and fruit trees.
While the trees are little you can garden between them.

Check out the Nearing method of building with stone. All the buildings you could do..

First clear the Cedars, fence it run few Goats. Raise Chicken and Rabbits. Raised Beds for Garden.

big rockpile

Use the rock for fence post especially corner post. Build sheds, fences, garden and flower beds. Depending on size. There is a lot that can be done with rock.

Take a pick up full of rocks to a mall parking lot in Nashville. Put a sign in the back that says "landscape rocks, $XX.xx for pick up full."

Who knows? Some middle aged professional might pay you a bunch of money for them.

You could always pile them up and make a big rockpile. :peep:

Hereabouts there are a lot of cobblestone buildings, some from field cobbles, others from the smooth, oval ones picked up on the shore of Lake Ontario and carted miles inland. The building of same was of course time-consuming, and is likely a "lost art", though could be retrievable.

And I thought Missouri's main crops were hay, cattle, ticks and rocks!

You could get cheap clock movements and picture frames from Freds or some other place, cut some hardboard to fit the clock into the frame and then glue rocks all around. Go to a flea market and sell "Rock Around The Clock" clocks for $50.

Or just glue a rock onto hardboard and frame it with the label "Original terrorist weapon. If rocks are made illegal it will make all the politicians get their rocks off."

Or glue one in a frame, and add a caption. "Dear Rabid Environmentalist. I hate to mention it, but not every thing that is natural is biodegradable."

Or put one in a shadow box with a glass cover. "In case of riot, break glass." Then put one next to it with a plexiglass cover. "In compliance with safety laws, OSHA, the EPA, and other governmental regulations, this rock is approved for use in the U.S.A. - to avoid injury, the dangerous breakable glass has been replaced by unbreakable plastic and access to the dangerous rock by children restricted by a safety lock.

From: http://www.zazzle.com/pet_rock_greet...64284810269860

Might work on the rich folks . Big thing it is rock country from that area there to bigger rock area the farther east and south you go :D

Few Corner Post


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...%202/005-2.jpg

big rockpile

Contact some landscapers in other areas that don't have rocks. We're in sand country here and big rocks sell for $$$.

You could always spread lots and lots of wood chips in among the rocks. Then plant a legume like honey locust for goat feed. Over time the soil will build but it may not be in your lifetime.

One good thing about having rocky land is that while you may have to do raised bed gardening , you shouldn't have a problem with burrowing rodents.

Have no idea what you are calling Honey Locust but here they are loaded with 3-5 inch thorns worst thing a person could ever have and bugger to get rid of. Son has 40 acres of them already spent thousands just to try to get them under control.

Black Locust is just about as bad.

big rockpile

I have had a rock garden growing for thousands of years. Please feel free to come and pick as many as you would like. A free U-Pick rock garden...who could ask for more.

Long long time-a-go. Had a boyfriend, he had a box of rocks, he told me they were "special rocks" because they were toted around in the 1800's. They were older rocks than most rocks and I should pay attention to them because they traveled on early settlers wagons. He was unhappy when I pointed out they were old rocks like most rocks formed normally. He truly believed his rocks were older than other any rocks and therefore more special. More special, special rocks. Very special rocks. Special rocks, it's amazing really. Special rocks.

I've never really understood the specialness of special rocks. I'm so insensitive apparently.

x_x

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ocustThorn.JPG

Lots of money in those boulders. Put an ad in local craigslist and sell them.

You might haul them down you way but I know the area these rocks are located . There are miles of them most directions from there the farther you go the more rocks you see . Like entering the Appalachian Mountain range or the other direction of Chattanooga :thumb:

Seems I heard a song about this place, Rocky Top Tennessee :sing:

I use to laugh at my Son we would go in the mountains in Colorado, he would try carrying the mountain down with him. I finally got to the top of a Small Mountain the other day, took a small rock down with me. Funny I have rocks from 600 feet in a mine. So I have them going both ways. Even have Apache Tear Drops.

big rockpile

I would say goats for a few seasons to clear it out and start composting on the edges, the squash is an excellent idea. With a lot of sun it's unstoppable! Also, once you have a little clear space look at making some hugelkultur mounds! Best not to pick battles with rocks you cannot win :)

Build a prison?

geo

We got rocks, on the ground, in the ground, large and small. Picked and piled, rolled into the ground and planted with hay, sitting there looking like a misplaced sea creature... oh rocks, always a part of our life. However, ours come with plenty of soil - yours sound like a place I used to live where the ground is ONLY rocks, covered by trees.

The real culprits are the trees. They shade out grasses and such from growing sod over the rocks, and have done so for centuries. Your land has reached the final stage of ecological succession and become a "climax community" where it is in a steady state. Unfortunately this state provides nothing but wood (and rocks).

If the trees go, you'll be surprised what can catch and grow between the rocks. Adding organic matter will help. Graze around the boulders, let sleeping rocks lie ;)

Sorry about starting this thread then leaving it "high and dry", but I went out of town for a 5 day bow hunt with some friends and did not have internet access. I will take some time and respond to some of the replies.

I mean I have a lot of rocks....I mean a lot of rocks. My property is the "tale of two wooded areas" as one are is rocky as all get out (Did I mention that I have a lot of rocks?) and the other part of the property is 100 year old oak trees (lots of topsoil there).

I was wondering about clearing the cedar and trying to get something to grow. Sunlight is a nice cure for a lot of things, however there is not a lot of topsoil there!

I've used the rocks for raised gardens, flower gardens, and even hooked on some of the other larger ones with my tractor and pulled them just into the wood line for almost a "border" type thing. We have a guest house with a few hammocks off the back and a fire pit (Built the fire pit out of rocks) and I pulled some of the largest rocks I could with my tractor and put in the area just so they would create a conversation piece while sitting around the fire pit.

I guess what I am also looking for is what type of seed is out there that needs little topsoil (top feeders) that I could sew areas with in order to make some time of vein attempt to start the process of making this area usable again by my kids kids?

I agree with building a prison. Add a school and a hospital, that would cover it, for your kids kids. ;)

You can start with self spreading, self seeding type of plant. (Invasive), start with horseradish, oregano, mints (all kinds), camomile and then to more self seeding flowers and herbs (dill, chard). If you decide to plan-seed the areas that are covered in invasive plants, you till it up, plant it intensively, and continue to pull invasive plants and replant. We've had areas of the yard here, we've done this with.

Please don't plant invasive weeds just because they will grow. They will spread, they always spread. Maybe OK in the yard but not in land measured by the acre. The only weed that might be OK is stinging nettles as they have tremendous roots and will to live, and will grow well on those rocks even in the shade. However with the rocks and trees, mowing weeds to control them may be a huge pain and sometime you will have to spray them, and kill everything.

What you need are nitrogen fixers once the trees are gone, as they will create organic matter from the air. Then you can graze them to create manure in situ. This is the process that created the topsoil in the hills I live in, once nothing but rocks thrown up by the glaciers.

It may be hard to get alfalfa to catch there but it can grow a 40' deep taproot. It will find nutrients and water in the toughest soil IF you can get it established. You would need to water it a lot in establishment year and have some form of soil for it to initially germinate in.

Sweet clover will grow about anywhere but most sweet clovers are toxic to some extent. There are a few new cultivars that can be grazed safely. Their robust stubble will help hold your new soil in place from erosion.

Here is too much data about legumes for soil improvement: http://www.agriculture.gov.sk.ca/Def...c-829f38598d7e

Despite the massive nitrogen and organic matter production of peas and fababean, I would recommend small-seeded perennials in this rocky situation. Probably sweet clover and grass mix. Beans will just not germinate.

Graze a legume/grass mix, fertilize P and K, and you will have soil before you know it. Probably in time for your own children. It won't be thick though, it will only ever be pasture with rocks sticking through it. And you can use the sweet clover right away - bees will turn it into honey at a good rate, and it's good feed if it is the right cultivar.

Your property is a bit further north than I might care for, but have you considered selling it? Hit me back if you're interested.

In Ks we have very few rocks, and they sell for big bucks here.

Would it be potential for a stone and gravel operation? Maybe if rocks were blasted out, you could start your fill then. Maybe contact local companies.

We are also in TN on the Cumberland Plateau, trust there is nothing special about rocks - even big ones. We grow them here. You can go out pick up a trailer load of them and 3 weeks later there is another trailer load ready to be picked up. If anyone wants some just let me know and you can come get them.