a start on moving into the woods from pond

well we have been working on developing the area between the pond / garden area and the woods..last year when we enlarged the pond we got huge piles of muck, dirt and clay..mostly clay.

over the winter the clay began to break down..and Joel removed the top layer that had broken down this spring..levelling it toward the field ..the alder marsh...and the aspen woods (not seen too well in the photos)..

some of the piles of soil and scum are still in a clearing just into the woods..and will be spread around as well..and some small trees have been planted in front of this area including 3 walnuts and a few others.



this photo shows the mostly clay that we are moving..spreading it to a slope out into the field so we can walk or drive to the field..also he spread it to a slope into the alder swamp..knocking down some dead alders so they are getting buried under the clay mess.

closer to where i'm standing when i took the photograph is a 5 acre aspen woods with some cherry and some red maples

here he is moving more of the clay that was broken down





still spring here in Michigan but this photo was taken a couple days ago..i have begun to plant around the edges of the pond but still can't do the clay area..as son wants to still take it down a little more level with the surroundingarea



in this photo i'm standing with the field in the first photo behind me looking toward the garden area i've been working on  in our back ..about 200 feet behind our house..

the woods is off to the right.

hopefully I'll be able to work on forest gardens in the woods area this year or next year..need to get some of the books that have been mentinoned to read before i proceed too much..the clay areas will have to be covered with some topsoil to be planted as they aren't much more than solid clay..but I am posting this to get advice from all you food  forest experts, for Northern Michigan..Hope the photos will behelpful in seeing what i'm up against..thanks Brenda

bought another tree and 8 more shrubs for this area and got them planted..now i'm waiting on rain..and i don't think it is far off..

i have another 10 trees on order

Well i did get a start on some wildlife food type shrubs this weekend, I put in two barberry and two dogwoods as well as some spreading groundcover type plants such as juniper and euonymus. We got the good heavy rains so the plants that I got put in are well established and showing growth already, and I've been studying what type of plants i can put in on the banks and am planning on digging up some of the runners off of my shrub and groundcover roses to go down the banks..they have beautiful huge rose hips and bear flowers all summer and  they will allow nesting habitat for smaller wildlife on the banks.

I have a few larger trees planted to grow, such as a couple of spruce, a white pine, austrian pine and canadian hemlock, and have allowed some alder and some autumn or russian (can't remember which) olive trees around the other sides of the pond and 2 small weeping willows are growing nicely now. A few aspen trees have managed to sneak to the edge of the pond and some paperbark maple seedlings have managed to establish themselves near the pond as well, so it will slowly grow into a more forested area..have no idea when the rest of the clay bank will get levelled so i can begin to plant that area.

I have also been slowly studying the forest area that connects to this area to the north. I wish to diversify it more than what it is now as it is mostly aspen with some maple and ash and wild cheryr. there are two seedling apple trees deep in the forest that need to have some trees removed from nearby to give them some more sunshine as well.

This forest has a few drier high areas but it tends to be somewhat swampy and has an alder marsh to the east of it as well.

the areas that have piles of sod, pond scum soil and quackgrass and weeds, is something that I really would like to work out a solution for this spring or summer..i have been putting a few smaller trees in that area as it is quite sunny, it is in a horsehoe shape hole on the south side of the woods, almost a suntrap,and I'm thinking of asking my son to spread a lot of the soil, sod, etc out to a somewhat level area there,and then begin to plant it with understory trees, vines, shrubs, perennials and groundcovers, leaving either grass or woodchip  paths and a driving lane through it so that we can access the firewood etc farther into the woods and use the truck or mower to get into the woods to haul things in or out.

any suggestions would be appreciated..thanks