I hope you are young.
My neighbors have three acres and it takes them about five hours to mow. They mow very slowly though.
You'll love the well water and the less clay soil.

Consider trees very carefully. I wish I had planted good shade trees when I first moved here 27 years ago. Instead I have junk trees, norway maple, walnut, and silver maple. Remember that you will have to mow around each tree and bush you plant. Planting beds are good for this reason.
Have fun!

I made a similar move last year--though not to multiple acres, just a large yard.

My advice is to plant things that won't need supplemental water once they are established, and not to go overboard and plant too many beds at once.

Having been crammed into a tiny city lot for 12 years, I could not wait to have a larger yard and garden. I only added one (long) new planting area to what previous owners had here, but after two summers in this house, I am starting to think I should have expanded more slowly.

The past several weeks with horrible heat and no rain have made it really challenging to keep things looking not awful. I can't even say "looking nice" because they don't.

The first thing to decide would be whether or not to put the entire acreage under cultivation. Start near the house - areas you can reach, and work your way outward once you get an idea of what you're actually dealing with. No sense planting a grove of trees or an orchard you can't manage without some kind of plan.

Yes, expect all manner of wildlife. The white tailed deer population in Wisconsin is estimated around the one million mark - 450,000 of them in the northern and central parts of the state. There are more white tailed deer in America now than there ever have been at any time in history. They'll eat saplings and some evergreens, garden perennials. Rabbits, voles, mice, chipmunks abound also. Plant berry bushes and you might get a bear or two.

i moved from 1/2 acre to 5 .....

first... you probably dont have a 'lawn' on 3.5 acres .... you have a meadow .... and an unmowed meadow is called a wildflower garden ....

get firmly in your mind.. that you are no longer a LAWN WARRIOR ....

pick and choose which parts of the acreage is necessary for a mowed area.. and feel free to leave other areas unmowed ... you will be in the country .... there isnt going to be any city inspector coming to harass you about height ...

next.. time to start collecting things like trees and conifers.. they take up a lot of space in the long run ....

and watering anything foo foo will be impossible.. the further you get from the house .... as dragging a couple hundred feet of hose gets old real fast ...

things like daylily.. can make nice gardens.. while needing little of no care after they get going .... so another post about the most hard core work horse plants.. will probably be a good start ...

good luck

ken

ps: big property requires a big lawnmower .... speed and deck width is important .... 3.5 acres is not a push mower type thing ....

I'm still a city dweller, however from what others have told me that did make the move to the country the biggest challenge was dealing with the wildlife. They simply were not prepared for how big a problem it can be - like everything they planted eaten, eaten, eaten. You may luck out and not have that problem, but it might be a good idea to talk to any neighbors before you start planting and see what the local critter population is like. No sense in planning a huge lily garden for instance if it's the favorite food of some local. Imagine that disappointment.

Kevin

If you are going to be living in this area a long time consider taking a period of time to see the land as it is now and to do some planning for paths and other items such as fences, etc. before putting in many new beds.

I remember someone putting in a long pipeline with spigots at different points to make using a hose easier with far from the house gardens.

There are many people with blogs that tell about gardening in the country and choosing plants that are deer resistant. Though I live in a suburb in MN I enjoy reading wonbyherwits blog about her deer resistant garden. Yes, we have deer here also. I already grow many of the same plants that she uses and look for others that are a different variety and hardy here.

I like the idea of meadows and using drought tolerant plants as well.

Also, your county extension agent can be a resource, especially for choosing trees.

Here is a link that might be useful: a deer resistant garden

We are still young. :) But my husband did say he hopes this is our "forever" home since he doesn't know how much longer he can do this (fixer uppers). LOL.

Thanks for the advice, lots of good stuff here.

I remember hearing that well water wreaks havoc on your hair, and your laundry...???

It's about 2.22 acres...and it is grass, and a lot of it, definitely not a push mower thing. If we don't mow, neighbors would be pretty upset. Pretty much everyone has mowed acres with mature trees, with tree lined unmowed areas along the lot lines for privacy.

I was thinking of keeping the planting beds closest to the house, and adding ornamental trees further from the home. There are definitely a lot of trees that need attention as far as trimming, and some removal.

I was told the soil is not clay, and the surrounding areas have a lot of rocks, so good drainage, but I'm assuming this also means not much moisture retention. They said the grass is usually brown, but this year there has been an unusual amount of rain, so grass is greener than most years. So much for hand weeding.

I'm guessing I should give up on my "Ligularia, The Rocket" which does fine in my clay soil, but I'm sure it will suffer there with not enough moisture. Even here, I water, water, water to keep it happy.

I don't usually plant edibles, mostly just perennials, but I'll have to look into perennials that wildlife favor. I'm guessing edibles would either be a huge undertaking in competing with wildlife, or just too much maintenance in general.

I'm assuming plants will be happier with well water as opposed to city water, right?

I was also told that with a John Deere mower, I can plan on maybe 45 minutes per acre?

There are plenty of mature trees - conifers, and deciduous, and others I haven't identified in my limited tree vocabulary.

I was going to start with installing a short picket fence for my dogs in the rear yard, and then go from there as far as planting beds closest to the house.

I'm looking forward to adding red japanese maples, dogwoods, magnolias...so many possibilities. Going from 1/8 acre to this is going to be heaven.

"They'll eat saplings and some evergreens, garden perennials. Rabbits, voles, mice, chipmunks abound also. Plant berry bushes and you might get a bear or two."
--- I had no idea deer like evergreens, ugh. Thanks for the info.

I remember someone putting in a long pipeline with spigots at different points to make using a hose easier with far from the house gardens.

===>>> that might have been me.. and i thought later that i forgot to mention it ...

one plastic pipe down the middle of the plot.. with T's every now and then... and spigots.. can be the best couple hundred bucks you ever spend .... and most likely less than the 500 feet of hose you will otherwise need to buy ...

i was young 10 years ago .. and now 10 years later.. i wonder what the heck i was thinking ... but the trees and conifers.. are nearly carefree at this time ....

see the apple tree on the left .... everything past it.. but for the giants was grown in 7 years .... mowing from 55 minutes.. to 7...

ken
{{gwi:240153}}

I am so happy for you. We've been 'gardening' on about 5-7
acres of our farm since 1977. By gardening I mean trying to put some of our own stamp on the existing space. Adding
a half-acre pond for one example.

I have found the most help in Ken Druse's book--The Natural
Garden. He divides space into the Inner Garden; the In Between Garden; and the Outer garden.

The inner garden is the most formal, screened from neighbors and perhaps partly sheltered. It may have some hard surfacing. It's the part where the hose needs to reach. It's the place where individual plants are featured. It's good to choose long lived plants and durable
materials because it's the most used part of the garden.

The in-between garden is what you see when you look out of your house or out of the inner garden. It's a good place for sweeps of color from masses of flowering plants. The in-between garden is a good place for hybrid or selected varieties of plants which may occur in their native forms in the Outer garden. A meadow garden is a possibility.

The Outer area is the wildest part of the garden. Perhaps the unmowed areas under trees can be woodland garden. Paths may need to be added in the Outer areas if you have
features there to get to. Perhaps some of the outer areas will be places to add spring bulbs which can be enjoyed before deciduous trees get their leaves.

Growing edibles for us requires a 7 foot fence. We got a fenced garden with 5 long raised beds for our Golden Wedding anniversary 6 years ago. It's fun but it's never
perfection. Keeps out deer, groundhogs, but not raccoons.

I'm NOT young, things are never finished, we are never out of ideas to try and I'm so glad we live in this kind of space.