Foresty Garden

MungBean

Looking for some advice or suggestions of what to do with my garden.

I'll try upload some pics tomorrow to give a better idea but for the moment I'll just describe it.

I have a small patch of ground, good soil but rocky in patches. I want to sow grass on the good spot an sow some type of creeper or something on the rocky patch.

I have a forest right beside it and I'm gonna clean that out and try incorporate it into the garden. The trees are them needly evergreen things and the forest floor is basically about 2 foot of needles. I sowed grass in a spot to see if it would grow and to my surprise it grew really well.

I might make pathways through the forest with a grassy clearing or something. Will grass last somewhere where it wont get a lot of light ? The patch I sowed is near the edge but I wanna move it in further under the tree cover. Also what kind of plants are best suited for underneath trees, with limited soil and not much direct sunlight ?

magicbastarder

if it's a planted forest of cash crop pines, i suspect you won't have a huge amount of luck growing anything; generally they will shade out all other plants. a photo would be good though, you might be lucky if they are not planted too densely and let some light through to the forest floor.

MungBean

Sorry for the poor quality pics, I took them with my useless phone. The last one is where I threw the handful of grass seed. It looks to have grew quite well. The trees are spread out too with just elder trees in between which can be taken out if need be.

slowburner

Skunkle wrote: »

Looking for some advice or suggestions of what to do with my garden.

I'll try upload some pics tomorrow to give a better idea but for the moment I'll just describe it.

I have a small patch of ground, good soil but rocky in patches. I want to sow grass on the good spot an sow some type of creeper or something on the rocky patch.

I have a forest right beside it and I'm gonna clean that out and try incorporate it into the garden. The trees are them needly evergreen things and the forest floor is basically about 2 foot of needles. I sowed grass in a spot to see if it would grow and to my surprise it grew really well.

I might make pathways through the forest with a grassy clearing or something. Will grass last somewhere where it wont get a lot of light ? The patch I sowed is near the edge but I wanna move it in further under the tree cover. Also what kind of plants are best suited for underneath trees, with limited soil and not much direct sunlight ?

Lucky you. The place has great potential. The best thing you can do is pay a visit to a native woodland. This will give you an idea of how you might develop the forest garden.
Ferns, Woodrush and Bluebells are the first plants that come to mind when thinking of a woodland floor. It was a bit hard to see what the mature hardwoods are, Sycamore, Beech perhaps, but it doesn't really matter. Some of the more spindly trees should probably be taken out/thinned - they are not doing any good.
I would aim for as naturalistic a planting scheme as possible and bear in mind that it will look considerably different in the winter.

magicbastarder

slowburner wrote: »

Some of the more spindly trees should probably be taken out/thinned - they are not doing any good.

depends on what you mean by doing good.

it's a lot more open than i'd suspected when you said it was pine. how much land is involved? if you have a stove or an open fire, you could possibly start some coppicing, which would have the double benefit of letting more light in and providing you with some heat in the winter.

redser7

Try some cottage garden type plants. Foxgloves would do well there and they would self-seed and come back every year. Was on holiers in Wexford and lots of foxgloves growing wild. Very beautiful in a woodland setting.

Ophiopogon

God I'm jealous look like a great space!

The first thing I would do is carry out a tree survey/Id, check the species and the conditions of all the trees.

That way you can get rid of anything that will in the future cause issues...including possible getting rid of Beech or such that reduce the ability to grow in the understory.

Also, maybe you might want to look into to permaculture planting as it could work great in your space.

MungBean

slowburner wrote: »

Lucky you. The place has great potential. The best thing you can do is pay a visit to a native woodland. This will give you an idea of how you might develop the forest garden.
Ferns, Woodrush and Bluebells are the first plants that come to mind when thinking of a woodland floor. It was a bit hard to see what the mature hardwoods are, Sycamore, Beech perhaps, but it doesn't really matter. Some of the more spindly trees should probably be taken out/thinned - they are not doing any good.
I would aim for as naturalistic a planting scheme as possible and bear in mind that it will look considerably different in the winter.

Yeah I'd like to keep it as natural as possible, there is a few ferns growing around the edges on the banks didnt think they would grow deeper in. Theres weeds and all sorts growing in other areas of the forest but for some reason nothing but elder trees and ivy grows in the patch I'm gonna work with.

magicbastarder wrote:

it's a lot more open than i'd suspected when you said it was pine. how much land is involved? if you have a stove or an open fire, you could possibly start some coppicing, which would have the double benefit of letting more light in and providing you with some heat in the winter.

Roughly the square of what you see in the first pic. I know its not of a great help but I havent measured it and hopeless at estimating measurements. I'll have to google coppicing I have no idea what it is.

Ophiopogon wrote:

The first thing I would do is carry out a tree survey/Id, check the species and the conditions of all the trees.

That way you can get rid of anything that will in the future cause issues...including possible getting rid of Beech or such that reduce the ability to grow in the understory.

Also, maybe you might want to look into to permaculture planting as it could work great in your space.

I dont want to go to too much expense, basically I'll be doing it all myself in my free time and I know very little about anything so it will be basic stuff. I'll have a look into permaculture planting and see what its all about though.

MungBean

redser7 wrote: »

Try some cottage garden type plants. Foxgloves would do well there and they would self-seed and come back every year. Was on holiers in Wexford and lots of foxgloves growing wild. Very beautiful in a woodland setting.

I like the look of foxgloves alright, seen them around but didnt know the name. I'm gonna try get as much colour as possible into it.

ponddigger

hi skunkle.beatuful woodland setting, every think of adding a stream running through the woodland,:Dponddigger:D

MungBean

ponddigger wrote: »

hi skunkle.beatuful woodland setting, every think of adding a stream running through the woodland,:Dponddigger:D

It would be nice, the wooded area is quite large. I'm pretty much just working with about a sixth of it, its a long strip that stretches the length of the garden in front of the house. The pic here are just a small part thats up the back. The rest is alot more overgrown and dense though.

Theres a big clay mound at the edge of what I'm working with, been there for years but its technically not on my land. Often thought of running it down that in a miniature waterfall and then running a little stream through the forest into a pond or some such . Dont thing the neighbours would care as its in an overgrown weedy area between the forest and farmland. You can see it in pic 2. As much as I'd like it I wouldnt be able to afford it, I'd imagine pumps and whatnot would cost a fair bit.

Eyeore

Bluebells would look fab underneath those trees!

MungBean

When sowing bluebells, ferns or anything involved will I be sowing seeds or plants ? And will I need to add anything to the "soil" ?

slowburner

Skunkle wrote: »

When sowing bluebells, ferns or anything involved will I be sowing seeds or plants ? And will I need to add anything to the "soil" ?

Bluebells can be bought as bulbs, ferns you will need to buy as plants and foxgloves you can buy as seeds. There should be no need to improve the soil, the conditions really dictate what plants will do well.
You should definitely try to control the ivy before you do any planting.

By the way, that clay mound - any idea what it is, might it be of interest to archaeologists? Just a thought before you turn it into a water feature.

MungBean

slowburner wrote: »

Bluebells can be bought as bulbs, ferns you will need to buy as plants and foxgloves you can buy as seeds. There should be no need to improve the soil, the conditions really dictate what plants will do well.
You should definitely try to control the ivy before you do any planting.

By the way, that clay mound - any idea what it is, might it be of interest to archaeologists? Just a thought before you turn it into a water feature.

Nah its the dirt from when my neighbour dug out pits for slatted sheds about 15 or more years ago. I went digging though it myself when I was young. As theres an old norman castle not far from there. Had dreams of hitting gold coins and gem studded swords but I didn find nottin. Broke into the castle too a few times and poked holes in the walls lookin for secret passages.

Sorry for repeating myself here but I wanna be sure about this. The soil is more soggy pine needles than actual dirt. Will that matter to the plants?

Ophiopogon

Pine needles can make the soil very acidic so you may want to think about adding lime to neutralize it.

You can do the tree survey yourself, I just think it would save alot of time and money in the long run. You could take pic's of the trees and post on here if you need help to Id them and than observe for signd of dead, dieased or damaged wood. This website could help with this http://forestry.about.com/od/forestryhelp/ss/byw_rxtree_3.htm.

IMO having as much info of the site prior to planting and also having a clear plan as to what you want it to be will save you money in the longer run as I think money could be lost on wrong plants and such. Trees like Beech wll allow little to no light so even normal woodland plants will not grow well under them.

Also, sorry I never put a link for permaculture so this is one but there is loads of sites on it and is worth the look I think anyway.
http://www.permaculture.org.uk/

MungBean

Ophiopogon wrote: »

Pine needles can make the soil very acidic so you may want to think about adding lime to neutralize it.

You can do the tree survey yourself, I just think it would save alot of time and money in the long run. You could take pic's of the trees and post on here if you need help to Id them and than observe for signd of dead, dieased or damaged wood. This website could help with this http://forestry.about.com/od/forestryhelp/ss/byw_rxtree_3.htm.

IMO having as much info of the site prior to planting and also having a clear plan as to what you want it to be will save you money in the longer run as I think money could be lost on wrong plants and such. Trees like Beech wll allow little to no light so even normal woodland plants will not grow well under them.

Also, sorry I never put a link for permaculture so this is one but there is loads of sites on it and is worth the look I think anyway.
http://www.permaculture.org.uk/

Thanks for the info. The trees are all pine and elders. There is some beech, sycamore and possibly others in the banks surrounding it. but in the space I'll be working its all pine and elder. I'll definitely check them all out for disease or dead ones though, thanks for the link.

magicbastarder

if it was me, i'd be gardening for wildlife; would be an idea (if it's the sort of thing you like) to ringbark the pine to kill them, but to leave them as dead standing wood, which is a not-too-common habitat. you could even plant something like honeysuckle at the base to climb up through the dead branches.

MungBean

magicbastarder wrote: »

if it was me, i'd be gardening for wildlife; would be an idea (if it's the sort of thing you like) to ringbark the pine to kill them, but to leave them as dead standing wood, which is a not-too-common habitat. you could even plant something like honeysuckle at the base to climb up through the dead branches.

You mean kill all the pine trees ? Would they not rot and fall down ?What kind of wildlife would that attract ?

magicbastarder

you wouldn't have to do them all at once; and they'll last long enough as dead standing. there are insects which bore into dead wood. plus, it'll allow more light onto the ground which will benefit other plants.
as i mentioned, it's more of a wildlife attracting idea than a particularly aesthetic one...

MungBean

I think I'll work away with the trees the way they are, if I think I need a bit more light in the future I'll look into doing a few perhaps. I like the idea of the honey suckle climbing up it. Pine trees are a bland looking.

Emmajanemc

Very very lucky! Am jealous, I know that this is an old post, but only seeing it now. I think that snowdrops around the base of the tree's would look great in the spring!