Land clearing in Unionville, TN

Limestone close under the grass

The ground here sits at about 720 feet, in the inner part of the Central Basin, where limestone lies a short way under the sod. Shallow rock like that is why the pasture is good and why cedar does just as well. A field that stops getting grazed or cut doesn’t need long. Red cedar takes hold in soil too thin for much else, and once it’s up it shades the grass out from underneath.

Cedar comes off thin ground clean

Roots aren’t the problem. The mulching head works at the base, not underground. What counts is that a cedar cut low doesn’t sprout back the way a hardwood will. Take it low and the field opens back up. Top it off and it’ll be thick again in a few seasons. Briars and blackberry go down with it, and that’s most of what fills the gaps between the cedars.

Down along Clem and Weakly

Clem Creek and Weakly Creek drain the ground right around town and drop into North Fork Creek a couple of miles south, which runs on west to the Duck River. Those bottoms are narrow, a soft strip between the field and the water, too tight to mow and too soft to keep a tractor level. Privet gets into them and stays. Leave it and it walks up out of the bottom into the fencerow.

A road town, not a rail town

Settlers laid out Unionville in 1827, twenty-five years before the Nashville and Chattanooga line made Bell Buckle and Wartrace, so it grew on the road instead of the rail. One highway still carries it. 41A runs northwest out of Shelbyville and on through Rover. Around the crossroads the ground is hay and cattle pasture, spread out toward Halls Mill, Cedar Grove and Taylor Crossroads. It sits south and west of Wilson County, on ground that usually wants two things: the field back out to the fence, and the fencerow narrow again.