Thinking of creating a woodland conifer garden
Comments (20)
cearbhaill (zone 6b Eastern Kentucky)
5 years agoDo you have deer?
I did something kind of similar but with Metasequoia and Taxodium and I had to build a wire cage for all of them to keep the deer from eating them. I have some sun, some dappled sun, and lots of shade back there but sited the trees in the mostly sun areas especially the 'Ogon' redwoods. Time will tell if they are getting enough sun or not but it was a risk I was willing to take.
They're farther apart than they look.
Heruga (7a Northern NJ)
5 years agoRelated Discussions
Creating a romantic woodland garden in North Texas
Comments (9)Oh, wow, you are doing with this part of your yard what I am doing with my WHOLE backyard. My yard is very small, we are in Coppell. Shade loving and woodsy - Turk's cap - especially variegated (will grow in sun, too, no problem), Elephant ears, spiderwort is cool, nice foliage and blooms late spring early summer. Grassy looking. Violets like shade and I think they really add to the woodland effect. I am planting wood fern, also known as southern fern, I think, here and there to fill in. Gold moneywort (also called creeping Jenny) is just a lovely groundcover that can take some foot traffic and is cool in its different shadings. Add purple shamrock, too (oxalis) - all of these things are small but perennial. Rain lilies are nice, too. And seriously, those airplane plants that everyone uses indoors are awesome! They return every year, make new babies and are a bright spot among the dark foliage. Oh, and Persian Shield is so pretty. Where you have some light you can do a couple of daylilies and I like Guara - it looks very woodsy but light. Asparagus fern returns for me every year but doesn't get overwhelming and it really gives another texture. My gardenia stays evergreen, but it hasn't done well and doesn't bloom, so I'm not sure I can help with the evergreen shrub. Rosemary maybe.. but of course you have to watch it since it will get so big. I'd love to hear other's thoughts on woodland schemes....See MoreHelp with creating a woodland garden in North Texas?
Comments (5)Dear Rebecca, Like Bob, I too live in a completely different zone (5). But a great place to start is by reading a book by Sally & Andy Wasowski called 'Native Texas Gardening: Maximum Beauty Minimum Upkeep.' Sally and her husband are native Texans who have travelled throughout the midwest, west and southwest and written books on native plants for each region. I have a copy of her widely popular Gardening with Prairie Plants for folks in the midwest. It was the best. What's really great is that her books give step by step instruction on how to create a garden - includes plant lists, loads of pictures, examples of native gardens and so on. I would really focus on native plants specific to the southwest before installing the usual garden center stuff - there's already too many exotics out there (particularly in the warmer zones) that are supposedly well-behaved and are escaping into what's left of our native habitats. It's a little harder to find some of these plants but I'm sure there are nurseries in your area or through mail order that will be glad to assist. I like your idea of the stone path - that will look very cool. Good Luck with garden and please send pictures after the installation....See MoreHow would you create this 'mini' woodland ?
Comments (9)I agree with the first poster who said to put your paths in first. That was my first step too. Then if you are worried about erosion why not work on your woods area in "phases". Stand out there with your husband and just visually scan over the area and come up with a mutual consensus on how much you can physically tackle and finacially tackle in one growing season. Then take one phase per year and dig in. That way phase one will be established while you work on phase 2 and phase 3 will still be grass so no eriosion can take place. If the area is small and managable to do in on growing season (this year) then I wouldn't worry about erosion at all, just go at it and create your woods like it would occur in nature with "natural succession" as well as "height variance" inside the woods. For natural succession you want to stand outside your proposed woods area and choose species of plants, shrubs and small trees that will create a succession of heights and protection for the plants, shrubs and trees INSIDE the woods. Drive out to the country just outside your city and with a notepad mark down what you see... likely grasses followed by native and unfortunately alien invasive flowers/weeds, followed by low scrubby shrubs and vines, then short trees/tall shrubs and then finally your tall trees which you already have established in your city dwelling. Inside the woods you want to create levels of plant life under the canopy of your mature trees to make it into a more realisitc "woods". To do this you need to research the kinds of plants, mosses, fungi, ferns, shrubs and trees that will grow under the canopy and place things in a pleasing manner inside the woods. Generally in a city woodland you'll want to place shrubs that grow quite large to the edges of your woods or in more unassuming places or places where you want to create a private little "nook". Surround those with smaller shrubs and then find places where items like ferns and wild flowers will look as thought they'd just grown there naturally for hundreds of years. ie. place ferns in low depressions and in the notches where tree roots emerge from the trunk of a tree or beside a large rock or a decaying tree trunk or branch. A real woods also has leaf litter, twigs and branches so clear them from your paths in the fall but toss them out into your wooded area for a more realistic look, an invite to the birds to perch on and organic material that can eventually feed the soil. Rocks with moss on them will create a tiny little ecosystem of it's own and beg for a woodland plant to be established right next to it so that it can drop water on it and feed the moss. My husband and I also have a city property with a bit of woods on it so we have cleaned it up, put paths in and are restoring it to "all native plants, shrubs and trees". We didn't have grass and we had a few alien invasives so it took us a year and a half to get rid of those but we've put a LOT of stuff into our little piece of heaven in a real short time and we are really enjoying it. Good luck with your project and keep us updated on how you are doing. Barb Southern Ontario, CANADA Zone 6a...See MoreCreating a woodland garden
Comments (8)The hillside (north) generally slopes towards my house. It is higher on the east side of the property, so I get a little water drainage advantage there. When I remove the silver maple I will improve drainage away from the house also. My hemlocks are at the northeast corner. They are a little small for mature hemlocks. My thought on oaks was that maybe they would end up in the small range of their potential height on the slope. The dense-shade maple is east, between two houses. I have done some drainage improvements next to it, and am experimenting with liriope there. I may try mondo grass in that area also. That area is the primary path in and out of the backyard. Re. trees, I may look into Serviceberry if oaks won't live peacefully. I grew something called baby tears in California, but it sure needed a lot of water. If it is the same plant I don't think it would survive our occasional snow in Oak Ridge. The weedy viney things I am constantly fighting are climbing euonymus, puncture vine(very hard to extract), and a vine that has an ivy shaped leaf. I have taken it a couple places and asked advice. One nursery told me to call it bindweed, but it doesn't act like any bindweed I have fought before. On the southwest corner it has almost covered a 15 foot privet, which makes it hard for me to decide which plant to attack. It has sent out woody underground runners into a bed of canna. I tend to think of sumacs as weedy looking, but locally they do get a nice red color in fall. I will rethink them... Also of note, no oaks have volunteered on my hillside, and we have enough squirrels some should have. Current tree volunteers are tulip poplar and boxelder. I get a lot of pokeweed. I rather like it, but my neighbors grimace. Thanks...See MoreUser
5 years agoThe back of my property is woodlands. Ive been planting conifers back there in the late fall for 5 years. Its largely overgrown and neglected (tons of poison ivy, I tend to stay out) but just this week I started cutting down invasive trees and other less desirables. I snapped some pics today. As time goes on the conifer:woodland tree ratio will only go up. Ill be planting about 8 new trees back here this fall. First pic is the entrance.
etc. Nothing too exciting but give me 40 years and the conifers will be...winning.
Heruga (7a Northern NJ)
5 years agoUser
5 years agoUser
5 years agoHere are a couple P. Strobus that were planted about 7 feet from each other (behind the smaller of the P. Strobus whose trunk is seen in pic is another pine, though I dont know what kind). When I am under just these 2 P. Strobus, it does have a bit of a forest feel. They have grown together nicely. The lady two houses up has a small pine grove of about 80-100 p. strobus. They are close, averaging maybe 8’ from each other. Super cool, back there, pine needle covered ground. The second pic shows the top of her pine grove, but was taken from my back yard. I believe those original pines were planted over 50 years ago. There are lots of volunteers, and I think from a small number of original plantings sprouted numerous saplings.
Mike McGarvey
5 years agoHeruga (7a Northern NJ)
5 years agoMike McGarvey
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoThe Cryptomerias and Chamaecyparis I have together are small growing types so I really can't evaluate those. I do know that both the Sequoia and Sequoiadendron can grow close together with usually no problems. So can the Cunninghamia lanceolata, .........side by side together. I'm still trying to post some pictures, but it's not happening. I'll start a new post. Heck, it even cuts off the beginning of the text! I gotta go. My wife wants to vacuum. Whoa! there's a pic! Sierra Redwoods.
Sequoiadendron giganteum.
Heruga (7a Northern NJ)
5 years agoWow that looks amazing. You did that all your self? I love that bare bark going all the way up 20+ feet or so with all that shade underneath. This is a pic of a forest of cryptomeria japonicas in Akita, Japan taken by my dad when he visited couple months ago. This would probably mean that they do very well planted closely together right??
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5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoHeruga (7a Northern NJ)
5 years agoUser
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoUser
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoHere is my future “dense conifer grove” lol. From left to right: P. Pungens Baby Blue, P.Glauca(smaller, seen behind right side of P. Pungens Baby Blue above the black soil), P. Pungens, P. Abies, P. Abies. Spacing between them is all bw 8-8.5 feet so they are clearly planted too close. I knew this and planted them anyways in hopes to get something similar to what is seen in your and Mikes pic. Both are stunning despite having no “specimen trees” in either. (and I just cut back a lot of “junk trees” in this cove in the last week to let more light in)
Here is another angle that shows the cove. P. Glauca is on left(small, blends in). The P. Abies on the right (next to ipad when I snapped pic) is not part of the cove, but rather a nearby lurker. The two rightmost P. Abies in above pic can be seen through its branches.
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5 years agoI found a pic that better shows the 2 P. Strobus close together (from my 4th post above this).
kitasei
5 years agoHeruga (7a Northern NJ)
5 years agoUser
5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago2 acres. The Norways will probably be touching in 7-9 years, the others a few years longer(still a small % of overall life of tree assuming they stay healthy). I just got some fresh poison ivy on me that I had been scratching when I saw the Roundup on clearance so I couldnt resist. Im not a fan of anything monsanto or scotts. I add cardboard most days. I just hope the cardboard doesnt keep the conifers too wet over the winter and cause them harm/to lose needles (mostly worried about P. Pungens). Im leaving it down and will keep an eye out. Right now is typically the driest time of the year here and my water table is at about 15”. Looking north down my future front yard, loaded with shade and conifers. American basswood in front.
Mike McGarvey