something to smother out the weeds,, hmm,, the only things that come to mind are non-native and quite "aggressive" ie invasive. i have an area much like you describe, lawn mowing and all. i planted the back portion to a food plot for deer/turkey/and all the other vermin. the acre closer to our living space i planted to wildflowers for the bees and such. basically i just improved the quality (in my opinion) of the weeds. but getting something to take over existing weeds and seeds will be tough. you might be better off just killing off whatever is already there, to do a good job of it will probably take severa attempts during this growing season. then plant to whatever tickles your fancy this fall. a good cover crop that you could plant this spring, and till under in a few weeks, then reapeat. just think of the directions for shampoo, would be buckwheat. just be sure to turn it under before the nutletts get ripe or you will have it in places you never dreamed of. but do a couple/few rounds of this, then hit whatever new growth you get late in the season with roundup. then you can seed to whatever

You know, what comes to mind when I think of an unused area is a wildlife crop. I first thought of Persimmons and American Plums, but they sucker, and if you're not mowing, you'd have thickets covering the whole yard within about 20 years, making it even that much more unmanageable.

How about chestnuts, chinkapins, hickories, pecans, pines, black walnut, or large oaks?

There are some really good suggestions here. I'm afraid that "something to plant that will smother weeds" is unlikely unless you want to go through worlds of work over some years, and that is what you are trying to avoid in this area. And to have those plants be useful, as well....

But the starter ideas you got in terms of developing this into an unmowed, natural area with diverse plants, and many of them wildflowers and edibles, is *really* good. It will not all happen this year. It will be a gradually developing thing. But it can happen without mowing.

Look for fruit or nut trees, and berrying shrubs, that you can plant. Dig out around them when you plant them, but after that, just weed-whack around them a couple of times a year until they get established. Pick natives and tough ones.

Clear patches and plant wildflower seeds and grasses. Help the patches for the first year, and then let them fight it out. Second year, spread what has worked, and plant more patches elsewhere.

Assume that this unmowed area is going to look wild. Then just make changes to get it back to both "old-time wild" and "useful wild", instead of the current "weeds-wild".

Are you in coastal or central or west-hills VA? Look for things that thrive in your area.

I love the idea of planting the far-out property to foodcrops for semi-welcome wildlife. What kinds of plants have you set out there for the deer/turkeys/etc?

I have 2 acres total, and it does take a long time to mow. I was tempted to try a wildflower area too, and did for a year or so.

Problem 1 was the voles, they love deep grass and plant cover and have a population explosion. To see if you have them, put some boards or black plastic or whatever on the ground for a while, then pull it up and see if you have a lot of surface runs developing.

Problem 2 was persistent weeds. Canadian thistle and dock started getting big and going to seed. Himalayan blackberry here takes over and can bury cars. Mowing is the only way to keep these in check and allow grasses and low plants to succeed.

I would go with the trees, planted with some nitrogen-fixing shrubs a la Permaculture, there are lists on Plants for a Future. I have an excellent groundcover that seems to kill all the weeds and even grasses in and around it, Symphytum grandiflorum, I have it in my orchard under trees and don't have to mow or weed-trim or use weed killers under them. It doesn't seem to do as well in full sun, though.

Here is a link that might be useful: my photo of comfrey

A picture might help even more... we didn't want something that looked out of place, and I'm afraid larger trees would. We are surrounded on 3 sides by cattle fields, and acreage of feed crops on the other side,. We never have seen deer over here with the easy pickens' over there... the deer would have to cross the large cattle fields to get to our relatively small gardens, so I guess its not worth their effort and they just hang out where the huge acerage of crops are. We have, however, seen quail here and I'd like to continue to try and attract them. No turkeys or anything like that since they won't cross the cattle fields either and then we have cattle fencing all around us too (deer could jump over, but no deer). I took this picture the first year we were here. A larger farm was subdivided and this area used to have cattle on it, so the first year it was mostly hay and the grasses they eat, but the second year, the weeds really starting taking over. Here is a picture of the area.

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Some smaller fruit trees would be good, fruit and nut bushes, would be good too... its just the time factor... but I guess I can't expect it to become wonderful all by itself!!! :) I'm going to look into that ground cover too.

Oh and to answer the question about where we are, we are in the valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We have free range chickens, but they don't go that far back on our property, but I mention that because I DONT want to attract fox or any predators that will kill our chickens. :)

I would think a good nut and oak crop would attract turkey as well as deer. Quail eat just about anything, from weeds to seeds to insects. So, just having tall enough grass or weeds is good enough for them.

Check out the following link for some ideas

Here is a link that might be useful: the wildlife group

Why don't you make a Labyrinth or a maze? You know have some fun with the space. You could do it with corn and feed the wildlife at the same time.
Just an idea.

I had the same problem at my old place, but it was even bigger. It wasn't securely fenced so I couldn't run livestock or rent it out. I settled for having a guy come out and bushhog it a few times a year to keep the tree seedings down.

For a while I considered doing no-till field corn and winter cover crops -- I figured someone would be happy to come out and cut the cornstalks for cattle feed and the winter cover crop would be mulch for the corn. But before I could figure out how to get it started, I decided to move.