Yellowdirt, Despite what you've been told, the reason for cultivation between rows is not to break up bacterial colonies, but to reduce certain insect and disease inoculum (it can help reduce disease inoculum, not by breaking up bac. colonies, but by burying last season's leaf litter which can harbor disease). Clover and alfalfa, while offering a benefit of adding N, have the disadvantage of harboring stink bugs. Around here this is a big problem, but in MT, with less rain, it may not be. You're on the right track trying to reduce grass/weed competition around your trees, just don't do it with plastic.

I have a cousin who wrote a cookbook as he used to be a chef in his earlier years. He was also in acting and was a radio announcer for a radio station in VT. His cookbook didn't sell as well as he hoped. I did provide him with a few favorite recipes however, just to help fill some additional pages. Because these threads tend to drop off after a preset amount, we have no control over very old posts, unless they are 'resurrected' before dropping off. Writing a synopsys of all the facts is a daunting task. I just hope that new-bees spend a few minutes to do searches before sending personal emails. Had I not taken the extra effort to copy and paste the above, it would have gone unshared. Once in a while I come up with a neat trick, and always like to share the experiences. My most sucessful has been to use the acid blend when making jellies. I have to say that I have not seen a single jar of my jellies spoil even after using all Splenda as a sweetener. Several years ago, no one ever heard of Clear Jel, until I posted links and mentioned using it, as well as the Pomona pectin. These 'tidbits' are now showing up in real web search links to the GW pages. Nice to know that they are not buried long after a few 100 links before them. As to been there, done that, I sure have had my share of that!

Actually, that was the side I didn't do anything to other than cut a few of the larger berry bushes at the bottom of the hill. That birch is in rough shape and without staking it up and waiting several years, it won't survive. I would just assume take it down since it's not really in a great location anyway. I hate to do it since they are becoming relatively scarce due to disease and insects. This picture http://minus.com/lbx4OfKnwRF4xc shows what are definitely blackberry/raspberry bushes. I wouldn't mind having them, in fact I would welcome having a ton more, just not here. Being on the slope they will not be easy to get to when the mature and have fruit. If there was a way to transplant them or something I would love to hear it. I had tried it in the past, but the only way I have ever seen them grow was by accident and negligence. Based on the size of a few of the lower bushes, I would bet they may produce a limited amount of fruit. The smaller ones at the top of the hill however are definitely not mature enough from my experience. Going off on a tangent... I loved having berry bushes growing up and we had a large sandy area on my parent's property that they grew like crazy in. They eventually began to die off and my dad chopped them all down. The began to come back by the time I went to college, but it took a while to get any amount of fruit from them. My last year at college I rented a small cottage on a back road that had the biggest patch of black raspberries I had ever seen. I started picking as soon as they began to ripen and then ever couple days for the next 3 weeks. I stopped for lack of room in the freezer for 1gal ziplock bags. I made at least a dozen pint jars of jam and a few quarts. I gave a bunch away but i'm hoarding the last few of the "good" batch for myself. :) So in other words, I would love to have berry bushes, just not where they are. A lot of what you see on the ground on the left side (looking from the house) is debris and not much in the way of live plants other than some weeds. Obviously it is still very early here and not much has come up yet though. The tree shown in the background of this picture http://minus.com/lbwhVJrx76OE9d appears to be planted from what is left of the mulch/preparation around the base. This shot http://minus.com/lvFny84VUSjeW shows a rock swail that comes down from what is left of the last owners fish pond sort of thing. There is a reddish low lying plant growing on either side that I failed to get a close up picture of. It appears that it will look nice later in the spring but needs some weeding and/or mulching. I will take your advice and try posting some pictures on the "name that plant" forum. In the meantime, would I benefit from getting some sort of tall meadow grass mix to put down in a few weeks? *whoops, I wrote a book

What did you end up doing?