In article ,
"0tterbot" wrote:

people round here only have livestock & don't grow crops except tree crops
(or annual crops for pasture for their animals). looking at this one way,
it's quite obvious why - the soil's not "fertile" in the classic sense,
although obviously i'm exploring its potential. but looking at it another
way, it doesn't make that much sense, actually, so i think i would be onto a
good thing to have a mixture of things i am doing to get the farm to pay for
itself. (dh has a job so there's no rush with this - hence i ended up
focussing in the immediate term on making the land support US only, then it
can progress to supporting itself). i need systems! i'm trying to put them
in place but underestimated how long this all takes. the chicken-garden
system is well underway albeit still terribly time-consuming, the next
system will probably revolve around some little pigs to get bigger areas of
soil more fertile, and a bit of a house-cow system when the fences get
fixed. past owners have farmed commercially in the past (for most of its
history) but they're not here now, so i want to fix their messes & get on
with it myself.

Have you considered something like alley-cropping? You'll find it mentioned
in peermaculture books, and I've seen it being done in the WA wheat belt.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Parenthood is like the modern stone washing process for denim jeans. You may
start out crisp, neat and tough, but you end up pale, limp and wrinkled."
Kerry Cue