Just starting out....help.....

Have moved to the Callaway side of the river. The new house location gives me many zones. Too many.....
I have a woodland area that will be great....how do I start?
a marshy area that I think I can somehow convert to some kind of creek bed from the upper lawn.....
the back of my house (woods) faces the sunrise
the front of my house, the sunset and gets the afternoon sun with a circle drive...just right for some kind of low maintenance garden with some ornamentation....

Yes, I sound very ambitious....long range.....how do I start right now?

Thanks......

WHEW!! Quite a yard!! For the woods, ferns and hostas for sure. Others will chip in with other plants. The rest I will have to think on. lol

Hello and welcome woodland nymph.

How did you become interested in gardening for wildlife?

Your property sounds really wonderful. Best way to start is to begin to identify what you already have. By that I mean, what plants are present and what animals are frequenting where you live. If you are in a position to share photos of the woodlands as well as photos of the wetlands that would be really great.

Your land is all in the same zone even though you have a front yard, a woodlands, and a wetlands area. Your property sounds a lot like mine. This will be fun for you but it won't happen over night.

Thanks so much for your replies. As to established plantings...well...there are none....only the woods and some stuff that might pass for grass in the dark...lol.....really starting from scratch.........am going to clean up the underbrush this week....just some small sapplings and stuff....the big trees are spaced almost like they were planned......will snap some photos on the digital and send them out.....

thanks again,
WN

Yes, take lots of photos of the plants in the wetlands and in the woods. This will be fun. Take photos of the underbrush too. Sometimes clearing underbrush can be a little tricky depending on what it is. Some plants, when cut down come back with a vengeance to torment you because they've got all those nice roots underground supporting little or no vegetation above ground and they pop up as 5 plants to grow and annoy you as opposed to the one you had before you cleared. There are things you can do to avoid this type of scenario if the plants comprising the underbrush can be identified. Lots of times, the plants need to be leafed out to be able to identify them but we do have a Plant Id forum here that has some of the best of the best people to identify plants. Posting photos there in the Plant ID forum is another tool available to you which helps tremendously.

The big trees being spaced as you noted might be indicative of an Oak Savanna as opposed to a woodlands. I've got an Oak/Hickory Savanna here which is very different than a woodland and very different than a forest. Different species of plants would be associated with each ecosystem.

Ummmmmm !
Sounds like you are going to be busy Woody .
As Eqi said , Pics will be great .
You know not to plant trees to close to the house ?
Upsets the foundations .

Miss Nymph, I moved to my house less than a year ago. Only one piece of advice, and someone else here on DG said it -- eat the elephant one bite at a time! As you wander around and familiarize yourself, the spaces will tell you what they need. Good luck, and POST PICTURES!!!! That moon shot is phenomenal; she is SO beautiful! Was that taken on your land?

I just want to give you some advice that I didn't get and really needed. Find what is natural for the area and check what will be roaming. Hostas are great as mentioned but are a favorite of deer, if you have them in your woods. I lost quite a few hostas plants and hundreds of dollars worth of lillies, tulips etc.
I have woods and marsh too, for the birds we have let the wild berry bushes grow in the area of the feeders. I used beaver chewed poles to make a fence for that area and let it go wild. There are some wild cherry trees and berry bushes that are pretty and birds like.
Even with the water nearby, I added a small pond in view of the house that brings in some turtles and frogs for easier viewing, and the water trickle adds a nice sound to that area. Frogs love the plants and buying one, multiplies to cover the whole pond in a very short time.
I agree, go slow, experiment. Sounds like you will have a great place to view the wildlife.
(here's a pond plant)

I agree with finding what is natural to an area. Those plants are always the hardiest overall and they co-evolved with the native wildlife.

That pond plant is Eichhornia crassipes. Common name of the plant is Water Hyacinth. It is one of the most highly invasive exotic species to hit the coast of North America. I know it is very beautiful but it is not natural for any area of our continent.

You caught that natural non natural thing. Bravo. I do not always do as I say. Hope others can learn from my many mistakes.
This is an enclosed pond, very small and far from the water and shouldn't spread. I just wanted something different than lilly pads, arrow head and the like that is in the lake. I would never introduce this in an uncontained natural area. But it sure is something to think about, maybe I am playing with fire on that one. Nature does has a way of spreading things, and this is a multiplier for sure.

I don't plant all "native" plants myself but I try real hard to research all of my plants before I buy them now to avoid planting anything that is invasive. I've bought too many accidentally already and had to rip them out and it is hard work getting plants in the ground let alone the loss of the cost of them so I feel for you.

Water Hyacinth is definitely a cause for concern anywhere it grows out of its native range in my humble opinion. There are those who claim it is not hardy up into the northern reaches of our Country however its presence in our area still poses serious issues even though it may not overwinter in a natural body of water. The single greatest issue is one you have already spotted, "buying one, multiplies to cover the whole pond in a very short time". Native fish hunt by sight. If that plant gets into a natural waterway and multiplies as you have described, there can be massive native fish kills. I've been to a pond where this happened. It was horrible and threw off the entire balance of the pond which resulted in die offs of other native species.

People share Water Hyacinth and when they have too much, there are those who go out and toss it into natural bodies of water. Not that birds aren't capable of spreading it to natural bodies of water but people seem to be the biggie.

Some really good information at this site-
http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/aquatics/waterhyacinth.shtml

Old thread on Water Hyacinth which raises some of the issues-
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/503232/

First comments in this thread are very good-
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/32226/index.html
"U. S. FEDERALLY LISTED NOXIOUS WEED.
Not allowed for import to the US and not allowed in any interstate or intrastate transportation without a specific permit from USDA APHIS PPQ (Plant Protection and Quarantine)."

Good overall on Eichhornia here where many gardeners posted. I think if you scroll down and read all the comments you will get a good feel for the issues surrounding this plant-
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/661/index.html

Thanks for edcuating us on this important issue. I sure learned something. No, you are correct, it is too cold here to winter over, but the dead plants also affect the water.

You raise an extremely valid concern in that dissolved oxygen levels do decrease during the decomposition process. This has been a real big issue for me with several introduced species in my ponds. Their biomass is so much greater than their native cousins that not only has pond water chemistry been thrown off but the hydrology of the property has been compromised over the years.

The more I think about it, the more I realize what an excellent point you made about dead plant material! I actually have aerial photos of my property before the European Phragmites, Narrow Leaf cattail, and Ribbon Grass got a foothold. When compared to 15 years later, you can see how one entire pond was completely engulfed by exotic invasive plant material and it no longer exists. There is no open water any longer. That pond was completely filled in over the past 15 years with decaying plant matter. I am addressing this but it's out of my league so I had to get help from professionals. I'm hoping to restore that particular pond so that it will once again be able to be used by wildlife. That pond was smack dab in the middle of my wetlands and it was beautiful.

I live in the marsh, swamp and can just enjoy all the stuff that grows there. Lots of green, pretty flowers and wildlife. They seem to be doing ok, in spite of the spraying (that is done about 1/2 mile downstream). My little teeny pond just sits there without a plant of somekind in it. Once there is a leaf on the water, the frogs and turtles move it, and it helps with the alge too. Is there a good plant I can get that won't be playing with fire? I guess I could dig one out of the water, but they need dirt, I like the floaters, they are easy.

Are cattails native to your area? They're not only beautiful, they're edible.

Oh yes, I was going to try to eat them, but get much competetion from muskrat and others, I figure I can get my food elsewhere. Pond is far to small for cattails. It is just a little deep plastic tub like thing that I have a pump hooked up to and then the water flows out a hand pitcher-pump.