Wow! sounds a lot like our place only one acre. We had the same situation. We cleared the small stuff from about 2/3 of it and left the remainder as is. What really looks neat to me is to remove the brush and replace with grass if the ground permits. A well maintained wood lot is always attractive. Steve in Baltimore County.

At this point I would only remove what you KNOW is bad: the honeysuckle, multiflora rose, any ligustrums, etc. Try to identify the rest (you may have to wait for it to leaf out again) before you remove what you don't know. There could be some good things there (native shrubs). Garden Web has an excellent "Name that Plant" forum. You can post pictures there and get help identifying stuff. Although for best results, post your pictures on a web hosting site like photobucket.com so that you don't have to reduce them. Then provide a link to your pictures.

I certainly would not plant grass back in place of what you clear out. That seems very unnatural for a woods setting. Plus, then you have the maintenance of mowing it and the potential damage to trees as you mow around them. My in-laws did that and now spend a lot of time and money mowing it and having other people mow it. Just add mulch (leaves, wood chips, even some grass clippings) back to the area to allow it to be a wooded setting. I lay old logs throughout my woods to create informal paths for the kids.

Some native plants buried under all that invasive stuff will return, and you can add more. Ferns, spring wildflowers, native shrubs are all appropriate for the area.

Good luck. I would certainly put my first efforts into getting rid of any invasive plants that have berries on them so that you can prevent the spread of new plants. Put those berries in the TRASH. Then go for the ones without berries (but which are still invasive).

My 2 cents: You can cut leggy forsythias right to the ground (you might want to wait until after they flower) and they'll come back beautifully - assuming they're getting enough sun.

After you get rid of the invasives that you recognize (I think that's a good plan), try to identify the other shrubs, and learn how to bring them back into shape (i.e., how and when to prune)if you want to keep them.

You could consider inviting the MAG plant swapper/plant maniacs to come out and help you identify stuff and you might get us to take away some shrubs you don't want. You could also come to a plant swap and get some plants for your project.

You could also read posts on the woodland forum and post there as well.

It's going to be tough to get any good flowers growing given that it sounds like you have a shady area, and because you will have deer issues. I would plant some native understory trees- dogwoods, redbuds, red cedars, etc. These are shade tolerant and not preferred browse for deer (which are likely to eat whatever you attempt to plant). They will look great every spring and should last for decades. I would not bother clearing the understory, it's a lot of work and won't kill anything. Just spot spray whatever you don't want with some herbicides when they start growing next spring.

Max - Depending on how close that old "golf course" is to your property, you should be VERY concerned about the many years of heavy chemical use on that golf course land - it's just atrocious the extent to which golf courses used to use an incredible array of nasty chemicals to keep their lawn turf so perfectly (and unnaturally) green. I would be concerned about how many of those chemicals still reside in the soil and/or have run-off or drained onto your property - working near such an enviornment I would be sure to wear good, impermeable gloves at all times, and carefully wash clothes that come into contact with that soil after every use. Good luck. - Eric

Welcome to the club! I'm doing much the same thing, only on a larger scale. I think that the important thing is to have a battle plan and go at it, even if you're doing it slowly. If you have cultivated roses, I would make getting rid of the multiflora a priority - RRD will wipe out all your cultivated roses, unfortunately.

I wouldn't indiscriminantly cut down everything in there, since you may have some wonderful natives that you will remove in the process. The small shrubs that have honeysuckle looking flowers (starts of white to cream, matures to a darker shade, red berries in fall on more mature shrubs) is more than likely Lonicera mackii, another non-native invasive. Absolutely use the resources at your disposal to identify and save what can be identified and saved, and put in plant that will enjoy your situation. The maurauding deer in my woods haven't touched the various ferns, epimedium and Hellebores.

Suja

Hi, Max. Down here in Montgomery County we have Master Garderners at Brookside Gardens every weekend. You can bring in samples of your NOID plants and they will ID them for you for free. Very nice people. Also, the MD Extension Service provides identification and it's been a while since I did it, but they first sent a form and envelope to send the sample to them. I forget if this was free or a nominal charge. I have found these services to be invaluable in learning about native plants on our property...plants that I might have otherwise tossed away.

ericeden, thank you for the advice. It is incredibly interesting to look through the small cluster of "woods" as they once showed signs of once being cultivated, or at least managed. There is vinca vine, which while invasive- I've only seen it on our property where the original owners or the last owners had placed growndcover. This would probably explain the forsythia, probably the largest of the multiflora, and this large evergreen, I think it might be a boxwood- some sort of hedge that would be appropriate for topiary- lol.

Suja, I am very excited about it- something very noble feeling about it when I'm cutting down all the nasty ancient bittersweet from around the trees. I am positive those vines are NOT native as it has berries all over the vine, not at the tips. Nasty vines thicker than my wrist- I'd chop them all to smithereens if only my dad would let me use a chainsaw.

Infared, those are wonderful resources, I'll be sure to keep them in mind, in fact I'll copy and paste it for. I'm positive I've heard of Brookside Gardens before, I'll ask my dad we might have been there before.

I'm positive I've heard of Brookside Gardens before, I'll ask my dad we might have been there before.

Max, Brookside is a public garden near Georgia & Randolph. They also have a website. I think the Master Gardeners are there year round. They are always listed on the calendar section of The Gazette. Brookside has a website, too, where you can get driving instructions and phone number to find out what time to show up for NOIDs. (This time of the year, they have special Christmas presentations.) They also offer a lot of classes there; ask when the next one is on native plants. I think they also have a native plant sale once or twice a year. You might want to buy some, but maybe they would let you sell your extras there too.