"... given how successful it is around here". Invasive species are indeed successful because they are so adaptable and can outcompete natives. You have a bad infestation of European Privet. Not too far from me is a beautiful forrested watershed, the dominent understory is European Privet, choking out everything else. Now for your roses and bittersweet, are you sure they are not Asian weeds? Sam

Jane, yours is a wild cherry, Prunus serotina, not buckthorn. It doesn't have the prominent leaf veins on the leaf underside that buckthorn has, and the edges of the leaf are finely toothed unlike buckthorn's smooth leaf edge. The cherries have their own stem with nothing but cherries on them rather than the buckthorn's many small stems for berries off of the main woody stem/branches. If you open one up you will recognize small cherry pits, and there is a bitter cherry taste if you are brave (I think buckthorn has 2 or 3 seeds.) One of the keys is the small lines in the bark (technically lenticels) on the cherries, where the lenticels on the buckthorn are dots. The other key factor for me is when you scratch cherry twig bark it smells like almonds, while the buckthorn has its own distinctive odor that isn't easily described, but definitely isn't almond. My memory is also that the buckthorn fruits have a clear yellowish flesh under the dark skin, while cherry fruits have the dark stain in the flesh in the same way commercial cherries do. Prunus serotina is native, and while it can be messy (the fruit stains as you would expect cherry to do) and it does seed around some, it doesn't IME outcompete and choke out other plants as buckthorn can do. Here is a link that might be useful: Prunus serotina, wild black cherry

It's hard for me to do the math in my mind and picture how thickly your trees and shrubs will be, but from my experience, it will be easiest to maintain if you put down newspapers, several sheets thick and then a few inches of mulch over that to keep the weeds down. If you call around, you might be able to find free mulch. I got a huge load delivered free to my house from a tree service company. It's not as nice as the stuff you buy but the price was right and I got it in the winter so it was free of leaves which makes it break down more slowly. Or your city may have a recycling facility with free or cheap mulch. I agree with Mosswitch. I'd put it right over the grass instead of trying to dig it all up. I'm not familiar with Maryland's climate but you may need to water them the first year or two when it's dry. I am quite jealous that you got all those for free! Wow! Sounds like you're going to have lots of berries/seeds for song birds. Spicebush is a host plant for Spicebush Swallowtail butterflies and Sweetbay Magnolia is a host plant for Tiger Swallowtails. Nice bonus.

Hello Oboedire, is the second one Solanium laciniatum; Kangaroo Apple, you might need to Google it to see the variations as the pic doesn't show the petiole junction at the fruit. Again try Google for this one; sandpaper fig. I know that the fruit grow along the branches.