Woodland garden information

I am looking for information on woodland gardening. I have been clearing out some woods and it would be great to have some tips from others....what to keep, what to get rid of, depth of leaf mulch, natural looking paths, rotting logs, transplanting natives, etc....

What types of plants do you have growing in your woods so we know what to suggest concerning keeping or getting rid of? If you aren't adding any plants that aren't already growing there, I wouldn't worry too much about leaf litter as everything will be very accustomed to the current depth (and Mother Nature will naturally add to it every fall anyway). Personally, I would probably leave rotting logs and plant things like ferns around them--they would love the extra organic matter.

Thank you for your response.
I have been cleaning out a portion of the woods in my "new" house and have discovered that is has been used for a dump. Under the honeysuckle and privet I have found old car bumpers, grills, swingset legs, bottles, glass, wire, etc. you name it. Because of that, I have been looking under the leaf litter (up to 8" deep) to get all the trash out. I have not put it all back, but maybe to a depth of about 2". In some areas I have found some surprises, like yucca, some kind of rose, potato vines, grape and muscadines, oak leaf hydrangea, beautyberry, ferns, and a lot of unknowns. There are also lots of big boulders that I am uncovering that are really cool. I want to keep it natural looking and not use hostas and things, but I did put some daylilies and black-eyed susans out on the front edge. I think they look natural. I moved one oak-leaf hydrangea and found the roots were like runners, near the surface. I hope it makes it. I don't know if I did it right....

I am thinking that after the privet is cleaned out and it gets more light, I may have other hidden things appear, especially come spring, maybe trillium or something? I hope.
I know that it will probably make the weeds come up, too.

I am cutting, digging, and pulling (carefully) lots of poison ivy as well.

I want to make a path, but not too "defined". I don't want to "line" the edges with the fallen logs, but there are so many, I may have to figure out a way to use them....

Any ideas are welcome, or if you know of a different website that addresses this, please let me know.
Thank you.
Julie Q.

Sounds like it has lots of potential to become a beautiful and peaceful looking area. I didn't realize you had all the old junk to clean out--YUCK! But it will be worth it. We have 11 1/2 acres and left the front 5 acres wooded for the deer. We have privet hedge too and it's lot's of work just to get rid of it, never mind all the poison ivy and Virginia creeper! But like you, we're aiming to keep it very natural looking. We've had a big doe raise her twin fawns up in that patch of woods every year since we finished building our house. A creek divides our front five from the 5 1/2 the house is on and we put a big food plot (wheat mixed with clover) on the house side of the creek every year for the deer. It's so fun to sit on the porch and watch our big doe bring her fawns out while they are still very small every year. Do you live far enough out for such a possibility? You know, if you have enough of the right size rocks, they sure would look neat lining your woodland pathway. BTW, oak leaf hydrangea will colonize so I would make sure where ever you have it, it has plenty of room to spread. I think it's pretty and the deer don't eat it (they will eat those day lilies though). Do you have any dogwood trees? They are understory trees and would probably look really nice in the front of your woods. You would have to protect them from deer while they are small though--they like them too.

Hello
Deer love the black eyed susan also. They got my hydrangea also (the shrub planted away from the house) right up close against the house, the hydrangea has been left alone.

I have been here since April and have not yet seen a deer. I am at the end of a row of houses and my property extends into the undeveloped area next to me. Maybe I will see some now in the fall / winter? So far, just rabbits, raccoons, squirrels & chipmunks, armadillos, and the occasional woodchuck. Oh, and lots of varieties of birds. I love to watch the birds. Something did eat my black-eyed Susan leaves in one area, and I am thinking it might be some type of caterpillar or bug, even though I haven't seen them... or maybe the rabbits???

I have found a couple of dogwood trees. One is quite large, but has no buds on it. Don't know why.... A couple others are seedling size. I may buy one to place nearer the front edge. Good idea. This would be the perfect time.

Julie,
Post some pictures for us if you can. I'd love to see your woodland area--bet it's gonna be so pretty. Since you love birds there are lot's of pretty things you can plant that they will like. They will eat the seeds from lots of flowers like purple coneflower and the blackeyed Susan you already have. And they like the red seeds produced by dogwood trees. You might try running a search on what type of nutrients a dogwood needs. Your big dogwood may not be blooming/seeding due to a nutrient deficiency. Or do you think the birds already ate all the seeds off before you noticed it? Maybe it will bloom next spring. Another tree that would be pretty near the edge that should do well in your area is redbud. They are so pretty in the early spring. Oh, and you might want to put at least one evergreen tree (cedar, holly, Layland cypress, whatever) for the birds to use as shelter during nasty weather. I notice they just love mine when it's rainy and/or windy.

I think your gonna love your woodland over ALL the seasons, you still have a lot of hard work ahead of you for now, but the best thing to do is just tackle a small area at a time or you will spend a fortune on trees and plants that are food to all the different wildlife at all different times of the year, the deer are wonderful but believe me, they are totally destructive and dont really care how much you spent on plants, or that they are your favourite plants either, they just know food when they see it, but on saying all that, within my woodland areas, I would rather sit and watch the deer than listen to neighbours and their kids yelling at each other any day, so when you do buy a tree or shrub, add to the cost good wooden stakes and some chicken wire to nail to the stake to prevent the rabbits and other wildlife gnawing at the roots and tender shoots at the base of these plants, once they are a bit more mature, you can then remove the protective fence around them and even if chewed, they are big enough to recover and withstand this destruction.
first of all you will need to do a soil check within a few areas of your wooded area to find out if you have an acid soil or neutral etc, as this will dictate what kind of plants you can hope to grow, you dont mention what type of trees are predominant in the woods but if you have a lot of pine trees, this usually indicates a more acidic soil as the pine needles keep the soil acidic and they like to grow in that environment, but a mixed wood will give you a wider variety of soil conditions and you will be able to grow a wider range of plants and shrubs.
Where I live it is mostly acidic soil and we have a wonderful Bluebell wooded area that when these bulbs come through the ground in May, the dappled sunshine makes the wooded floor look as if it has been painted Blue, they naturalise on their own and spread very quickly so you just need a few clumps scattered here and there till they get spreading about, also early spring we have naturalised Snowdrops, Daffodils, trillium's, Bergenias in the damper areas and then planted Rhododendrons as the deer dont seem to eat them at the outer edges of the wood where we can enjoy the spring flowering and the wonderful variety of colours from them and they are evergreen too, Holly's are great as they feed the birds and decorate the house at Christmas, but to get berries, you need at least on female plant placed close to the other males, birds like to shelter from predators in the hollies also and nest, the flowers are insignificant but the berries add a wonderful bright colour all winter, Cotoneasters are good underplantings as are Pyracanthas, these come in berries ranging from Red, Orange, Yellow etc and can, given the chance, grow into small trees, they flower in summer, Wild cherry are good as you get the blossom and the small cherries for the wildlife and the birds love them too, the cherries drop onto the floor and lots of other wildlife get a good feed also, Magnolia will grow and flower well in a dappled shaded area and the flowers are great (acidic soil) evergreen and can grow large if protected from the deer when young, around your large stones you can grow Gentians that are like dark ink colours in summer and will naturalise if the conditions are right, Perennial Geraniums are good, you should also try to grow trees and shrubs that will give you the wonderful Autumn coloured foliage like Acers, Witch Hazels for their wonderful smell as the flowers appear before the foliage and can eventually grow into small trees, Liquid Amber is my favourite tree, slow to get started, but the orange and yellow of the leaves in fall are a treat. I could go on and on, but without knowing your soil type and temp, it is hard to direct you any further as it is not cheep to build up a woodland area, you need to choose your plants with a lot of care, but with you logs, you could place them into large or smaller piles, neatly, and you will be amazed at all the wildlife that will hibernate within these piles of logs if left undisturbed and they will thank you for it by eating a lot of insects and slugs which will definitely ruin a lot of your new plants. hope this is of some help to get your thinking cap on and you get off to a good start, go along to the library to get some books on woodland planting and management as for a good few years it is a lot of work, eventually it grows wilder and more natural, but for paths, why not just start off by cutting the ground cover with a rotary mower every few weeks till you start to enjoy where you want your winding paths to be, then just gather all your leaf-mould and rake it along the pathways as eventually it will rot down and the thicker it gets, the less greenery will be able to grow as it will be too thick for a lot of plants to get light to grow. Good luck, send some picture for us all to admire. WeeNel.

Thank you for all of your suggestions. My woods is mostly hardwood, but a couple of southern pines....I like the idea of getting some kind of evergreen, but maybe not the southern pine...must ponder this...
I was out cleaning and pulling vines today (mostly honeysuckle) and discovered another great area. I went a little deeper in the woods and found a huge boulder in the side of the hill with some ferns around it. Above it is the biggest oak leaf hydrangea I've ever seen. It was so covered in vines that I couldn't tell what it was at first, except I recognized the shaggy bark and voila! there it was. It must be at least 8 feet tall because I couldn't reach the top, I had to bend it down to get the vines out. And there were some old flower "skeletons" in it, so I know it blooms! All covered up and dark, and still going strong....I hope my "uncovering" will just make it better....

Oh, yeah, and I also uncovered two swing set legs, some wire, and a broken lamp. But that is gone now!

I feel like I am not so much gardening as I am revealing what is already there! and hopefully restoring it to a better condition....Once I have it all cleaned out there might not be that much to do!

Julie,
Don't know if you get into this or not, but those flowers on the oak leaf make real nice dried flowers. Actually, I let them get almost dry on the plant and then cut them to use in dried arrangements in the house. They really are showy. When I get time, I hope to dig up a few and put them down by our creek. They grow in the absolute worst soil around here and my creek area has real hard clay so I hope they will like it there. Plus, they seem to like to grow on steep banks too.

If you bend a few of your tall bits of your Hydrangea down into the soil, scrape away some soil and peg the bent shoots down, add a garden cane to tie the top bit of the shoot to the cane, hey presto, you will have a new plant rooted ready to cut away from the parent plant and replant this new cutting next spring to flower and grow where you plant it, do nip out the growing tip for the first couple of years to get it to throw out side shots and become bushy. WeeNel.