Green Landscaping
   Wild Ones Handbook

WHAT EVERY WILD ONE SHOULD KNOW 

PLANTING A WOODLAND 

Planting A Woodland
by Don Vorpahl, Landscape Designer

Test your soil for pH (i.e., acid, neutral, alkaline), PKN (phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen) and organic content. Depending on the results, you may amend your soil with sand, leaf litter, humus, compost, cottonseed or soybean meal, malt sprouts, lime, peat, pine needles, and/or 'starter soil' containing microorganisms and micorhiza (beneficial fungi) from the top two inches of forest soil (where most soil organisms live). To eliminate existing vegetation, smother it with newspapers, finely shredded hardwood bark or flakes of weed-free hay.

Create shade, depending on your location, with early-succession species. Trees: Birch, Aspen, Plum, Black Cherry, Pin Cherry, Serviceberry, Hawthorn, Red or White Cedar. Shrubs: Hazelnut, Diervilla, Ninebark, Potentilla, Hypericum, Red or Silky Dogwood, Oldfield Juniper. Groundcovers: Virginia Creeper, Wild Strawberry, Common Blue (Butterfly) Violet, False or Starry Solomon's Plume, Solomon's Seal, Mayapple, Wild Columbine, Pearly Everlasting, Pussytoes, Wineleaf or Oldfield Cinquefoil, Zigzag Goldenrod, Bigleaf Aster.

Add mature canopy, later-succession and climax species. Trees: Oak, Maple, Basswood, Beech, Hemlock, Hophornbeam, Musclewood. Shrubs: Witchhazel, Pagoda Dogwood, Bladdernut, Leatherwood, American Cranberry, Arrowwood, Mapleleaf, and Nannyberry Viburnum, Russet Buffaloberry, Eastern Wahoo. Groundlayer: Limit species to fewer than six in a given area, often planting in masses of only one or two species. Plan for blooming and fruiting throughout spring, summer, and fall.

Many native grasses, ferns, sedges, and rushes (Juncus spp.) are useful as groundcovers. All, except ferns, can be field-seeded. Several species shown below (see asterisks*) may also be field-seeded. The remainder are generally planted as dormant rootstocks or potted plants.

For best results, water deeply after planting and during dry spells. Fertilize with organics such as fish-emulsion, cottonseed and soybean meal, malt-sprouts, compost, leafmold, and bonemeal. Deep-mulch to feed, insulate, control weeds, and hold moisture. Hand-weed diligently, especially in first and second years.

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