Here’s one of the conundrums that occurs and its where I think litter and/or cattle could really help the cycling process…..This is the same area I just showed where the thick stand of blackberry was mowed....I'm on the other end looking back..... So now I have a really thick layer of blackberry mulch down across the soil surface…..The problem is that there is so much of it that it will temporarily prevent new seedling plant growth from coming back in those areas until it decomposes. I’ll get regrowth coming back from the old established plants but ideally I want to maximize the plant density a little more with new growth…..

This is where you have to really have some perspective on what you do….If this were in an area that had a better natural soil type then I could probably get away with using a disk instead of a mower to just slightly process this biomass into the very top layer of soil as things are reset……In my situation though with such fragile sand in this area….tearing that top layer of dark soil apart in any way makes things degrade and go backwards. I've been there and done that already with it... That dark top soil is best left alone to cover over the sand and the biomass just fed from the top down or you really just work against yourself in these soils……What would have been ideal is if right after I mowed it if I had come across the top with a litter/manure application. That would speed up the decomposition of the biomass and boost plant growth at the same time. Cattle hooves and manure would also help to process the biomass and give everything a boost. That’s really the “natural” component that’s missing to this process…..Back long ago this would have been reset by something like a buffalo or elk herd instead of a bushhog and you would have gotten that hoofing action and manure application that its needing.