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George Marsh 09-17-2012 12:04:11 50.104.213.108 Report to Moderator	4 years ago I started mowing the trails in an old gravel pit. The man up the road, he is 88, said his grandpa sold sand and gravel to the county out of this old pit. I wish I knew how to post text, then a pic and more text. Haven't figured that out yet. Perhaps someone could tell me how. Thanks I posted a pic of the sand and gravel along with a pic of what is looks like if it's not mowed. There is a native grass, not sure what it is, that came up after I began mowing. Keep in mind it grows in rocks and sand and made it through the driest times in a long time. Who can identify the crass. I have places in my yard that needs re-seeded. Can't see why this wouldn't be something to consider replanting. George [Reply]   [No Email]
DDodge 09-17-2012 18:41:12 75.219.7.242 Report to Moderator	Re: Native grass in Indiana? in reply to George Marsh, 09-17-2012 12:04:11   Looks like the native prarie grass a conservation group planted down the road from us. It is good looking at gets 3 to 4 feet high but this time of year when it starts going dormant it looks like one wrong match and a lot of acres would go up quickly. [Reply]  [No Email]
HCooke 09-17-2012 18:36:31 70.195.65.119 Report to Moderator	Re: Native grass in Indiana? in reply to George Marsh, 09-17-2012 12:04:11   George, I moved to my place in the country about 15 years ago. Property had a two acre parcel that was 'old field' had not been mowed for several years and was overgrown with cedar trees and oak and hickory saplings. I brush hogged it and planted seed that I collected from conservation areas. This is what it looked like a couple of years ago. [Reply]  [No Email]
Mr. T. Minnesota 09-17-2012 18:14:51 68.170.114.158 Report to Moderator	Re: Native grass in Indiana? in reply to George Marsh, 09-17-2012 12:04:11   George, About 20 plus years ago there was a special on 60 minutes. The state of Texas was trying to plant the right of way along a freeway with different types of vegetation. Nothing seemed to survive the Texas climate. Finally they chose vegetation that was native to Texas. Low and behold it was an excellent choice. Sounds like you are on the right path! Best of luck with the unknown grass. Mr. T. Minnesota [Reply]  [No Email]
Ultradog MN 09-17-2012 17:04:01 174.20.247.199 Report to Moderator	Re: Native grass in Indiana? in reply to George Marsh, 09-17-2012 12:04:11   Hi George, No help here on the grass. I also own a gravel pit. Not really gravel per se - more like a gravelly, claey, stoney fill type material. They used a lot of it for fill when they rebuilt the highway and also the levee up in my hometown. It's a small parcel - 17 acres and the pit is about 7 acres of that. I was talking to a fellow one time - he was a civil engineer and I gave him some estimated numbers about how deep and how many acres they mined the dirt. He estimated they had taken about 1/2 million yards out of it. It's not been mined in about 40 years now so a lot of brush and trees have grown back. Also grasses and weeds. There is one area about 1 acre that has some good black top soil on it so I plow and disc that up every couple of years and replant a food plot. The rest I just bush hog every year. First pic is of me doing a little soil prep prior to planting. The second pic is part of the plot after it came up. I got a little too heavy on the turnip that year. You can see by the cliff in the backgound how deep they mined the dirt. Sorry if this is too OT for your post but your comments about the gravel pit got me thinking. [Reply]  [No Email]
George Marsh 09-17-2012 17:32:57 50.104.213.108 Report to Moderator	Re: Native grass in Indiana? in reply to Ultradog MN, 09-17-2012 17:04:01   Ultradog. My gravel pit was mined a long time ago. It is about 25 ft below grade. Some of the pit floods in the winter and spring. Summer and fall the water level is very low. The only dirt in my pit is from a section that floods in the winter, gray clay mud. You are lucky to have black dirt. I have only sand and grave. I hauled many dump trailer loads of sand/rock to make a driveway to pole barn. Once you get it pack in and rained on, it becomes very hard. If I want to get a load out of the pit, I have to use the backhoe to break it loose before I can use the front bucket load it. I have a ball hitch on my IHC to pull the dump trailer with. Tractor weighs about 3000#, dump trailer weighs about 3000#, and estimate 3-4000# load is all I can get enough traction to get up the hill. Have to put a lot of weight on the tractor. There are times I know I'm pushing the limit of traction and HP. I have the break away cable in hand in case something happens. There is no way the tractor brakes could stop trailer from pulling me back down the hill. George [Reply]  [No Email]