pls8xx and gardenga148: I completely concur that the project should be broken down into 2 broad areas: (1) Land use/land planning for the overall 70 acres (2) Conversion of a small part to residential use I am still contemplating #1. However, I do believe I have settled on an aspect of overall land use. I believe, basically along or near the nature path, an area of sufficient width and composition to benefit bobwhite quail usage. In the old days, farms had small fields with lots of overgrown fence rows. That habitat was ideal for bobwhite quail. I believe I want to lay out the farm along those parameters (knowing that certain desires/goals compete with others). My research, consultation with my pastor (former horitculturalist and quail plantation manager) and personal experience are leading me to a strip approximately 15 feet wide of lespedeza intermixed with something like switchgrass or one of the other native grasses. I believe I want to combine the "habitat utility" of those or similar plants with a stepped (height and width) variety of native flowering, perennial plants, choosing a variety which is consistent with the wildlife management goal and visual appeal goal. There is a substantial likelihood that I would also break up the 28 acre agricultural field with a couple of cross corridors of similar plant material. These are among the types of things I am struggling with now. Comment on layout, continuity, plant selection and the like are what I am seeking. As each of you have said, this is a huge, long-term project and I seek input from others who's experience may bear on the layout, design and plant selection. I understand there are many, many different "right" and "wrong" ways. However, respecting the opinions of those participating in these forums, I would be interesting in reading your opinions and views and why you have those opinions and views. With respect to what I hoped to achieve with the pond. I like water. I like the ocean, rivers (large and small), lakes and ponds. I like to fish ocassionally but what I REALLY like is to feed the fish. It is very soothing. The pond can be an attractive focal point to the landscape. It can provide the "mirrored" images of the foliage surrounding it. And, if need be, it can provide for some irrigation. I have always liked looking out across the water, of sitting on my porch and looking across the water. I liked the idea of driving down the driveway into the house site and looking at the house across the pond as well. Back to another aspect of the overall land use. We initially intended to put the entire property into a pecan orchard, for both looks and future revenue. However, knowing there are always bad years along with good years with any crop, we decided that was not very smart. We also became interested in muscadine vineyards and fruit production. So, we will probably incorporate a bit of the pecan orchard, vineyard and fruit orchard. We want approximately 1/2 to 1 acre vegetable garden site. I believe we also want a "gardening" experimentation site of approximately 1/2 to 1 acre as well as a small greenhouse. I strongly expect we will leave the remaining oak ridge in mostly an as-is condition for the wildlife usage, but, with some modification to make in more friendly to the turkey and quail. I seem to have rambled a bit and apologize. But, with such a large overall project, it is difficult to include all the desires and keep them organized and coordinated. nandina, with respect to the observation of native flora, existing but possibly hidden features, I will try to do some walking and photographing this weekend. One focal point at the northern most point of the property where you see Potential Well Location, there was an old homeplace there. The shallow well still remains there. I expect to clean that well out and hang a usable well bucket there. An arbor is a possibility there. It could be purely decorative or be a "natural" appearing arbor with cultured muscadine vines so one could sit on a draw a bucket of cool well water, pick a few grapes, sit on a wooden bench, eat the grapes and look out over the landscape. One feature I didn't know about until buying and spending time on the farm is that for whatever reason, it attacts substantially more summer and fall breezes than most areas in the surrounding countryside. Thank you all again for your input and I look forward to more comments, critiques and suggestions. I will attach images of some of the wildflowers or weeds growing in the cut-over areas now.

That sounds nice, worthwhile. I'm renting here so any money spent is almost always on plants that live in pots that I can take with me eventually, or seeds. I do a lot of free-scaping, multiplying the plants already here and some of my potted plants to add starts to the beds, gladly accepting handouts from friends & neighbors. I think it looks as tropical as possible without involving actual money. The front porch is getting so full of pots and foliage that people walking by are starting to NOT notice me sitting out there. They usually say hi, so I know I'm hidden in my 'jungle.' Just as the steward of this land while I'm here, I feel compelled to make it a better place to live. Even if you own land, your time on it is very short in the grand scheme of things. I've been here 5 years and would like to stay for about 11 more, but who knows. So far, I've rounded out all of the hard-to-mow corners of the lawn into beds where I plant whatever - veggies, shrubs, annuals, perennials, vines, and made a plot for mostly veggies behind the clothesline, where nobody tended to play. I wouldn't call lawns useless, but they are certainly abused, misunderstood, overused fallback to lack of better ideas. I guess it's all a matter of your perspective, though. My appreciation of vast expanses of mowed area is growing the longer I'm here. My disdain for 5-acre lawns developed in OH, where I'm from. It's different here in AL, where the mowed zone defines where you're PROBABLY safe from snakes, or at least you should be able to see one. That's a pretty big deal and I don't 2nd guess anyone who wants to spend the time mowing that much if it makes them safer. Anything that helps UNattract mosquitoes is good too. This town has a "rattlesnake rodeo" every year and they tell me they're all caught pretty close by. It's why I don't do any solid groundcover type plants, and don't pack plants as tightly as I would like to. I want to be able to see that there's no snake, and to not create an environment that would attract any in the first place. There's a lot of older, overgrown yards around here and I think I'm always in fear of that look in the back of my mind. It's all kind of a tropic buzzkill. Lou mentioned fountain grass... What do we think about ornamental grasses? I think the ones that look like giant corn, or red or variegated ones are kinda tropical looking to me although they're probably not from "either" type of tropical environment.

Now 77 years old and now diabetic 2 (but I can eat fruit and I do have a lot of fruit). Waiting 2 more weeks before I start indoor grow light seeds, winter sowing seeds, salad seeds in heated mini greenhouse. Replaced mini greenhouse by myself and covered edges with many rolls of UV film. Sprayed chairs and ornaments with UV spray. Sprayed rusting items like dog pen for blueberries and metal ornaments with WD40. Chairs must have 2-3 bricks on them to keep them from blowing down in the wind. Laid black plastic film to replace so called landscape fabric that loves weeds. Poly film and clover are great aides to prevent weeds. I have a giant leaf blower and shredder that is now hard to lift - so I got a light weight leaf blower and blew away most of the oak leaves and nuts near the back of the house and the wind moved more for me. In spring my ex son in law will trim the too tall again so-called dwarf apricot and plum trees for me with my new electric chain pole saw. The peaches, nectarines, and mini apples are short enough. I have watering lines for sprayers and emitters and use timers. I laid out a hose line with switches from the center sprinkler so I could hand water if needed (2 times so far after water lines drained for winter) and to spray the fruit trees - now both are super easy jobs. It now takes less than 5 minutes to spray the 14 fruit trees using a hand sprayer (wonderful invention) - hah!. I also have a mister in case I overheat in the summer. I will have to prune the brambles and remove dead food crops from tubs later - but that is easy with a hand pruner. I have large trash cans with drainage slits placed at every end of the back yard for yard and garden debris until they either compost or go into the trash. Planting food crops in tubs is so easy and so is picking them. Back yard getting really gorgeous all year long. Have colored chairs, colored tubs, colored and white solar lights (getting more this week), colored and green foliage (dwarf conifers, some evergreen sedums, strawberries/blueberries/brambles turning color - earlier EAC was vivid red). I have solar and non-solar ornaments with more coming this week. I even recently added fake flowers for some tubs - crazy but it looks good this winter. Front yard dwarf japanese maples and azaleas turning color. The 2 giant oaks dropped their nuts and leaves again but not as bad as in previous years. The city just added a sidewalk so that is less area to take care off. In spring I will have lots of bulbs and flowering bushes and trees. In summer I will have food crops and flowers. In fall I will have food crops, flowers, and fall foliage. In winter dwarf conifers, sedums, and food crops in the GH. Life is good and gardening is now super easy. I find it hard to believe what I used to do when i was in my 20s - like try to garden in clay in the country and carry water from a creek a long distance away.

Dee, you bought the Julia Child rose? Wow, that’s great, it will be all ready to just start growing in the spring. So many orders have been delayed, you won’t have to wait for it to be delivered to get it in the ground. And that’s two nice roses still on your shrubs! I have a couple of buds left and I’m still amazed at how good the foliage on Julia Child and Beverly look. Petunias are really hardy annuals I guess. Too bad those never got out of their container this year…lol. But if you leave them there and pile some mulch around it they might survive the winter. Or you could stick them in the middle of a compost pile. I decided to leave my dahlia tubers in the ground. If they live they live. I dug out a grouping that was in a container and decided to put those in the middle of the compost bin. They’ll make it or they won’t. We got out and did some work today. It was freezing this morning, colder than freezing! 22F on the back porch. Normally we’d be out there early trying to get things done, but today we waited until 12n, when it was 40F by that time. Full sun, blue skies. It was very pleasant working out there. I wasn’t thrilled with the harvest from our tomatoes last year, so I decided to make more of an effort, so today, we started a lasagna bed where they are going next year. My DH cut up some cardboard and we laid that down, then he shoveled out half the compost bin and we layered that with a trash barrel full of chopped up leaves, and topped it all off with more compost. Should be much better soil there next year. I had to move a Lily bulb. The last time I had to dig one up, I had already cut the dead stems off. This time I left about 3ft of the stem on it. It was much easier to dig it up and move it that way. We are now working on getting the large annual pots emptied and put away. I left mine out last winter and two very nice 22” clay pots were all busted up. And I have some other material that is like paper mâché, cardboard, something. It’s very sturdy and has lasted many years, I just don’t know what material it is. Last year I left the pot full over winter and it developed some vertical cracks on a couple of sides. They're still useable but, this year I’m putting them away. I still have perennials in them that grew pretty large and I’m trying to find a place for them. Nepeta, Sedum and a Penstemon in one and a Phlox paniculata in the other one. I had one pot of Black Pearl Sedum waiting to be planted and we got that planted and an Oriental poppy moved out of the way of the tomatoes. And that’s that. I’m ready to stop for the day. Tomorrow morning I should be able to finish up all the outdoor pots and get them put away. DH hasn’t stopped yet. He just keeps going and going. He’s already mowed the lawn today, Set up a fire pit for company tomorrow. Broke down half of the compost pile, helped me and now he’s putting the tomato cages away in the eaves of the garage and finding a place to put a tall wooden trellis for the winter. He already tried to clean out the front gutters this morning but the leaves had enough water in them to freeze and he couldn’t get them out. Monday is supposed to be 60F, so we’ll have to wait for then. We are almost done for the season! There's barely a leaf left on trees and shrubs. We’re having company tomorrow in the backyard with a fire pit for Hannukah. My daughter already made the Brisket and DH will make the latkes tomorrow. I am really looking forward to it. When we first started getting together in the yard, I was not happy about it, but we got a fire pit and we are all enjoying it much more now that we have that. Even when it's been mid 40s, on days when the sun is out and there's not a lot of wind, it's very comfortable and such a nice change to be outdoors in the fresh air this time of year. And I hate to leave this long post on a Photo Thread with no photos [g] ....so.... My poor broken clay pots. I didn't enjoy them this year in this condition and I'm probably going to just break them up after i empty them. Pennisetum That's Babs on the left, and her brother Fritz on the right. They are such fun company! They love running through the leaves.