Building a Woodland

My Backyard Woodland, May 8, 2021

I did not plant my deciduous woodland until I had installed the wildflowers in the front. I still had a lot of planning to do with this and I had a good number of woody plants yet to purchase for it.  The wildflower meadow was a fairly easy decision. I had a good number of the plants I wanted already in pots and I was eager to do something for the pollinators in my neighborhood.  As I wrote several years back, there were literally no pollinators here at the time. I had to pollinate my key lime by hand. There were no bees to be found here. That changed as the wildflowers and native grasses took hold. Once they were here, it was time to plan and plant the woodland.

A woodland needs to function as a community. It is not a collection of individual plants, but an extended family of plants that function together.  I chose trees and shrubs that were, for the most part, deciduous so that I would get ample sunlight to the understory for the spring-blooming species I wished to provide for.  The species also needed to provide food and cover for birds. Many of my favorites are not species native to my "zone"; they are found north of me in places like Torreya State Park - west of Tallahassee. I am fond of the spring-blooming species that eventually produce fruit. I also am a bit eccentric, so I'm told, and I often shy away a bit from the species most commonly planted in my region. I've found over the years that zones are largely immaterial unless you are looking for advice on when to start your vegetable garden. What's truly important is your growing conditions - soils, moisture and sun. 

Once I decided on a plan, I set about securing the plants I wanted. I am often amused at those who believe that a road trip to purchase plants is too much trouble and then settle for what they can find locally. I love road trips and I've always been adamant about finding just the right plants. Sometimes, it has taken me years to find a specimen I wanted. If a woody plant is likely to outlive me, it seems appropriate to invest the time to get just the right ones. Over the years, I have traveled to the Florida Keys and the western Panhandle to purchase plants from native plant nurseries and I've grown my own when something has not been available. Of course, that has taken me to a great many parts of Florida on expeditions to find fruit of something that I've wanted at a nursery and it has meant waiting even longer for them to grow large enough to provide any ecological value.  All of my plants, therefore, have a story behind them - a memory and sentimental meaning. I think plants, like a pet, should.

Plants are sentient beings; we learn more about that with each passing year. They are not "dumb" beings and they respond to the world around them. One response is one that is referred to as "crown shyness".  Canopy trees often avoid battling each other for canopy space. In a natural woodland, canopies of neighboring trees rarely touch. They grow upright instead of "outright".  I always put this to use when I design a woodland, and I certainly did it here in my new landscape.  At times my friends have chided me for planting trees "too close" together. They follow guidelines often recommended by the literature and plant their trees 10 or more feet apart. It is true that trees planted this way will spread their crowns out, but it also means that one has less room for as many trees. I have planted my trees a bit closer together so that I can fit in most everything I want in the limited space afforded me.  The trees are doing exactly what I wanted; they are growing upwards and I have achieved the greater diversity that I wanted.

This doesn't work this way if you are planting beneath existing trees. It only works well when you are planting in an area without trees and all at the same time. My planting area was turf and this gave me the freedom to do whatever I wanted. It is a blessing to design landscapes in barren conditions. 

I am still awaiting the arrival of migratory birds during the spring and fall. I am getting a lot of resident birds using my immature woods, but the real test to the success my planting will be the arrival of migrating songbirds like I had in my former yard. Trees and shrubs take time to develop. I am hoping that I have that time.