posted 10 years ago
I would just let trees grow, will be the most productive way to improve the soil. Cover crops are used in annual crops to hold the soil and improve composition but the grass and trees will do that just fine. Just cut some back when they get in your way. Nitrogen fixing trees/shrubs/native legumes will increase leaf production and biomass growth, if necessary. I like sweet fern, new jersey tea, wild senna, sundial lupine.
Since your location is in a forest, trees are the most productive, so planting edible trees like hickory, walnut (butternut, white walnut), chestnut will give you the most food production.
Under the nut trees can be these understory plants or added to the woodland, Hazelnut, Serviceberry, red mulberry, huckleberry, lowbush blueberry, chokeberry. Propagating your own seed will be the cost effective way to over-plant areas.
With deer they are browsers and less grazers. So giving them a lot of food choices reduces the damage they can do. Also mixing poisonous plants with edible plants can protect each other. (elderberry with serviceberry or spicebush with walnut) Weeds can be your friend with deer if they will eat it. Scything areas where there is inedible deer food will increase the alternatives and give them something else to nibble on thats free for you. I have pokeweed everywhere which has good ecological value, dynamic accumulator, and protects my plants from detection during a lot of the summer growing season. Downsides are if you have an overabundance of deer, you might need to do other things to protect the plants. Over time your trees will grow above the 5' height deer browse from and not need protection.
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