A few years ago, I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal, West Africa with the specific task of implementing agroforestry practices. Before this position, I was only vaguely familiar with agroforestry, but since then, my eyes have been opened to it, and I see it quite a lot. Whether done unintentionally through home gardens with shade trees or purposefully with live fencing techniques, it is a common and useful practice and a relatively simple concept to grasp.
Before we go further, here’s a brief overview ofagroforestryand a generalized definition: a mixture of trees, crops, and animals on the same parcel of land.
作物和牲畜的利用是可选择的,但树木是农林业的重要组成部分。当树木与农业结合在一起时,通常可以提供多种服务,比如遮荫、遮蔽、防止侵蚀、自然边界、绿肥、牲畜饲料或防风林。
本文将作为实施活栅栏的具体方法,这是一种非常常见的农林复合实践。
What Is Live Fencing?
活栅栏是利用树木物种种植在附近,创造一个自然的,生活的边界。事实上,活的篱笆就像它听起来的那样——活的篱笆,活的篱笆。看不清楚?想象一下美国传统的白色尖桩栅栏,然后想象一下每根柱子都被树木/灌木取代,它们之间不是水平连接的木板,而是树木/灌木的树枝交织在一起,形成了一个不可逾越的边界。这就是实弹击剑。
Live fencing is beautiful when you think about it. It creates living out of the inanimate/dead and allows a more natural environment. While there are, of course, natural borders existing within nature (i.e. mountains, rivers, canyons), fences are at large a human invention. Generally, borders existing within nature are larger, have a vital place in the ecosystem, and the transitions between them are gentle. Usually, fences create an artificial buffer that disconnects nature.
It is something you can think of as a “soft edge”, forest that gradually and naturally transitions into shrubbery and then a field. Regular fencing can be understood as a “hard edge”, like a forest that borders a parking lot.
活栅栏也是一种人工缓冲(即人类创造的),但它仍然可以通过为野生动物(如地松鼠、鸣禽、爬行动物和/或两栖动物)和其他环境服务提供栖息地来实现连接。这些有吸引力的环保方面如下:帮助固碳(就像活的树所做的那样)和种植树木而不是购买产品。活栅栏是一项长期投资,因为从理论上讲,如果处理得当,栅栏可以永远存在。它不需要后期更换或油漆工作,也不会生锈。由于这个原因,它可能是一个更经济可行的选择。
Goals and Objectives of Live Fencing
隐私、自然边界、野生动物栖息地、遏制牲畜/阻止讨厌的野生动物物种,以及其他农林复合功能,如防风林和土壤保护。
Pros of Live Fencing
1.Durable for multiple generations (i.e., longer lasting)
2.More economically feasible
3.Provides wildlife habitat
4.May provide wood
5.More environmentally friendly and sustainable
6.Offer biological and agricultural functions这是人造栅栏所不能做到的。
Cons of Live Fencing
1.Time consuming
2.Requires excess maintenance like pruning/watering
3.Sometimes hard to establish
Good Species for Live Fencing
Your specific objectives behind live fencing will dictate what species you use. For example, if your goal is to keep out (or in) livestock/wildlife, you will want to use thorny species. However, if you simply want a natural border, lower maintenance, or a privacy wall, your species choice will change.
Another factor that will impact your species choice, is your local environmental conditions. If you live in an area with subjectively dry, arid soil, there’s certain species choices that will not thrive here. This is important to keep in mind when selecting your live fencing species.
Here’s a list of common goals behind live fencing and some species ideas to go with them (many of them are interchangeable):
Privacy Live Fence Species
- Boxwood
- Privet
- Holly
Low Maintenance Live Fence Species
- Bamboo– no interweaving of branches needed
- Junipers/coniferous evergreens– no leaf drop cleanup
Natural Border/AestheticsLive Fence Species
- Lilac
- Willows
- Boxwood
- Holly
Keeping Livestock/Wildlife In/OutLive Fence Species
- Cactus –obviously, climate is an important factor here
- Acacea species
- Acacia paradoxa
- Acacia verticillata
- Holly
在你决定了你想创建你的活栅栏的物种后,你需要进一步决定你是愿意培养一个苗圃,还是购买准备种植的小树。这个决定取决于您的时间限制和您想要投入到项目中的个人努力的数量。如果不明显,创建一个苗圃将比简单地购买幼树需要更多的时间和照顾。然而,走这条路线在经济上更可行。
How to Plant A Live Fence
1. Prepare the soil/hole
Dig a hole 3 to 4 times larger than the grow bag or seedlings container
If soil in your area is of low quality or arid, it can be helpful for seedling establishment to amend the soil where you will be planting the seedlings before the planting takes place. To do this, dig the hole as already described and add amendments. Mix the amendments, water the hole, and allow it to sit for a day or two before planting the seedlings (to allow amendments to absorb into the soil).
Soil amendments can include compost, tree ash, manure (cow, goat, bunny), silica, etc.
2. Remove the seedling from the grow sack
Carefully do so to ensuring the roots are not damaged or broken in the process.
它可以是有益的,在你的手滚动种植袋,以帮助打破土壤,减少根系断裂的可能性。
3. Ruffle the soil
Doing so around the rootstock will help decompact it and allow roots to easily grow outwards.
4. Place seedling
Place seedling in the center of the hole being conscious to not plant it too deep. The depth should be enough to completely cover the soil encasing the roots, but not so deep it covers more than an inch of the seedling stem.
5. Fill the hole
Fill in the remainder of the hole and pack soil down enough to discourage the seedling from shifting within the hole.
6. Water the seedlings
Continue watering freshly outplanted seedlings until they have become adequately established.
The proximity/planting distance between the seedlings directly coincides with the species you decide to plant. This is personal research that should be done after you decide the species you would like to use for live fencing. Generally, the seedlings will be planted in a row about 1 to 2 feet apart (again, this depends on the species you use).
Pruning and Weaving Live Fencing
After the live fencing seedlings have been out-planted and begun growing, the pruning and weaving process begins. Your objectives for having a live fence will dictate what exactly this process looks like for you in terms of the height, thickness, shape, etc., of your fence.
Here’s a list of general steps for after-planting care:
- Trim to the shape and height you desire with clean pruning shears(or a tool that works the same).
- Tall live fence/windbreak-不要修剪幼苗的顶部,只修剪侧枝。
- Short/squat/privacy barrier/keep livestock in or wildlife out– trim the top of the seedling to help promote side branching, and therefore make the tree grow thicker, creating a natural privacy barrier and making it difficult for animals to break through.
- Begin weaving branches between the live fencing trees. Weaving essentially allows the trees to grow together as one, without there being gaps and spaces between the tops of the trees.
Live Fencing FAQ
Some important things to keep in mind depending on your objectives:
What do I plant for privacy?
If you desire a privacy barrier, ensure you plant evergreen species so you don’t have an unwanted surprise when winter comes, and your privacy barrier suddenly loses its leaves and becomes see-through!
What do I plant for safety from wildlife?
If you want a live fence that is designed to keep livestock in and wildlife out, use a thorny species to discourage the animals from breaking through the fence and discourage animals from eating the fence!
What do I plant if I live in an area with animal activity?
If you’re are creating a live fence in an area that has a lot of animal activity, make sure you protect the fence during the establishment process so it is not mowed down via animals eating it and destroyed before it is established.
What do I plant if I live close to a sidewalk?
If planting the live fence close to a sidewalk, paved road, or driveway, make sure you choose a species with roots known to grow downward versus outward, otherwise you will deal with a cracking sidewalk, road, or driveway from the roots growing under it.
Have a plan in mind for entrances and exits for your live fence (you can’t move the trees in and out of place as you would a doorway).
Know your allergies! It would be terribly unfortunate to create a live fence with annual flowering cycles that trigger allergic reactions.
After establishment, live fences are relatively low maintenance and beautiful to have around. They are long lasting and generally damage-resistant. The environmentally friendly aspect is a huge attraction, especially knowing you are providing wildlife habitat for birds and small critters.
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