Good day,
I'm what you would call an extreme novice in permaculture, but I've been doing as much reading as I can and I was wondering if someone could give me feedback on my plans.
Some background. My wife and I purchased a historic home in central missouri with 5 acres on it that hasn't been looked after in almost 15 years. We've been working on reclaiming an old garden area, but I'm setting my eyes on the 3.5 acres of forest. Currently it's about 80% mature black locust, with the rest being elm and black walnut that are all almost perfectly straight and form the canopy at about 50-60ft high. Most people around here hate the BL, but after reading on this site and others I'm seeing the light their usefulness. I'd like to thin them out though to plant some under story productive trees like pawpaw, hazelnuts, persimmons, plums, and maybe some sugar maple, but I need to let the light in. Since Black locust coppice so well, I was wondering if it would be possible to use the regrowth from the coppice as green manure for the productive trees? I know the woody material won't decay but maybe the leafy material will add something back to the soil?
Also, there are tons of fallen black and honey locust on the forest floor that just won't decay. Are there any mushroom innoculations that can hasten these logs back into the soil?
Thanks so much,
-Paul
