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oath5

What should I do?(Woods/yard restoration)

oath5
16 years ago

Hi there, I had a few questions. My family lives in a small house in Baltimore county with two acres, with a small stretch of woods that stand between our yard, and a former golf course and now a new development. The woods have been very neglected and are over run with brambles, poision ivy, but mainly bittersweet, honeysuckle and wild multiflora rose, which is diseased and is a risk to my cultivated roses up by the house. Me and my father pulled a lot of the roses out, sprayed them, etc to kill them, however, there are other leggy shrubs and old forsythia that are included in the understory as well as old I'm guessing property marking shrubs back from when our house was built in the 20's/30's.

I was thinking, though it would be a HUGE project, to do a restoration and get rid of the invasives and clear the buffer zone and possibly plant transitional plants like goldenrod and such but I would like to know how to go about that.

The question is, do I cut down ALL the shrubs in the undergrowth. some bloom flowers in the spring that look like small Japanese honeysuckle, though I don't smell anything from them. Leggy forsythia too as mentioned.

How should I go about returning the woods to a more natural and healthier state? I'm not sure we're allowed to burn, but should we just cut down ALL undergrowth, leaving only trees?

If I could I would take pictures and post them, but I'm currently at college and would be able to when I go home in a few weeks.

Thank you,

Max

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