You can hurry the succession along by buying cheap seedlings from your local extension office. Often times extension offices have a once a year sale of native and naturalized tree and shrub seedlings at a very cheap price. Often 10 for $10 etc. YOu can then plant these enmass for relatively little and let the strong ones survive.
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Definitely plant something to get started. Trees don't have to be expensive. Are there any timber companies in your area? they might sell tree seedlings cheaply too. Here we can buy bags of seedlings from Weyerhauser every February - 160 2yr old doug firs or western hemlocks for $60 I think, last I went. There's also a wholesale nursery that sells their leftover bare root stock to the public at the end of the season - 2-4yr old trees for ~$5 depending on species, shrubs for much less. High mortality rate with these tho since they've been in cold storage too long by the time the nursery is willing to sell them to us. But you get the idea.

One traditional method of planting mixed hedges I heard of was to put in some posts where you want the trees and run string in between the posts. The birds will come and sit on the string and plant the seeds of the trees they've been feeding off of. Then in a few (ok lots) years you'll have your wildlife friendly mixed hedge/buffer strip.

Hi Happy,
We had about 12 acres that used to be in hay, that we wanted to grow up in trees. We just didn't have the money or time to plant them all, so we just let the field go. It's been mostly weeds. The trees are finally starting to grow up in it......and it's been about 14 years!!! If I had it to do over, this is what I'd do: I'd mow lots of little paths through all the weeds. The edges of those paths is where the trees will grow, since they will get more sunlight and won't get as choked out by the weeds.
It would be good to plant a couple trees around the area, to attract wildlife, which will plant seeds for you.
Also, I would collect nuts and seeds from lots of trees in our woods, and throw them out into the field. But I think the paths are the best way to go. Good luck!

If you let natire do the work for you, as desribed above, remember that many of the plants that pop up will be invasives. You have to learn what they look like when they're young so you can pull them immiediately, especially woody vines and trees.

I agree about the invasives. But just be aware that this approach can take a while!

I would make sure to put in a lot of understory trees, they will establish faster than your canopy and shade out a lot of the nasties you describe. Dogwood, redbud, service berry etc.. 1 and 2 yr trees can be had cheap on the auction sites and can double in size once established. Since you are in SC treat them for powdery mildew anthracnose when they are small and you should be ok. Put in some canopy trees too, with the understory growing you can buy smaller sizes and afford to wait for them to catch up.

Here where I live (Ontario, CANADA) we have a "Ministry of Natural Resources" and each Ministry region has "regional and local offices". If we want to forest or windbreak the Ministry will sell us saplings (hardwood and evergreen) for a nickle each so long as you take a minimum of something like 100. It's been years since I enquired about it but I'm sure they must still have the same program. Don't you have something similar in the USA? You can fill most of your area with a mix of hardwood stands and evergreen stands and then gradually work at little areas where you put larger trees, shrubs etc... until you've developed some Shady areas. Once you've established some shady areas (a grouping of 3-5 would give you a bit of shade, you can start adding some of your native plants that can tolerate mixed sun and shade in and around the tree grouping. In the sunlit areas you can continue with hardy native sunloving plants and then in the fall you can collect and sew your own seeds farther and farther from the paths. Go to plant sales and swaps, beg from neighbors, call your local parks department and see what they might give you and just keep planning season to season what you are going to do to continue with your project. You can also put ads in your local paper and state that if anyone has trees or shrubs (size within reason) that they want removed, that you will come and remove it for them if they let you have it. With permission you can also ask local farmers if you can dig up a few saplings from their wood lots. In my wood lot for every square foot there are easily 5 maple saplings and none of them will ever survive. It's just too dense of shade and there are too many saplings competing for the space. I just gave away a bunch of maple saplings to some girls from here at Garden Web when we had a plant swap. Save tree and shrub ideas for your birthday and Christmas (gift certificates from relatives), watch local papers for year end sales at nurseries and farms and have summer "tree parties" where you host a bonfire and BBQ at your property for your friends and family and ask that each family bring a "host/hostess gift" of a tree or shrub and let the kids put a plaque or tag on the tree to say where it came from "ie. donated by the Robert Smith Family". Let kids plant flowers or sew seeds and take family trips to the countryside to collect native seeds and nuts to strew about in the fall.

Invasives are definitely a pain in the "you know what" but if you can get a native ground cover going, even in small spots, you will save yourself a lot of trouble in the long run.

Best of fun to you..

Barb
Southern Ontario, CANADA zone 6a

As was mentioned, the extension office can be a good source of low cost trees. Over the last 5 years I have gotten and planted and re-planted hundreds of trees, but am making progress. And before mowing areas in which I want trees I walk the area with survey flags, marking any volunteer trees that I find. Their survival rate is much better than that of the trees I plant. I often can't id the volunteers when they are quite small, so I let them grow until I can do so, removing any that are invasive. The walking takes time, but since I only mow the areas 2 or 3 times a year it does not seem like much. I also keep on eye open for volunteer trees in the garden and flower beds around the house--it is amazing how many get started in those locations. Any I find get transplanted to the woods-to-be, again removing invasives as soon as they can be identified.

Do you have any wooded areas on your property? If so, my suggestion is similar to phacops above. We had a field of pines removed prior to building our house and have been left (thanks to an over-aggressive guy that cut the trees) with a field of weeds. My DH complains about having to mow between/around the trees I have managed to salvage and transplant, but I keep trying to tell him that one day he won't have to mow at all. What a deal, right?!

What I have been doing for the past 5 years is doing a woodland walk, digging dig up some of the desirable oaks, redbud, etc even when very small (6-8 inches). I've also found "volunteer trees" in some of my foundation or planting beds. I put them in 1-3 gallon plastic pots (the ones I've kept from the garden centers) with potting soil mixed with some good native woodland soil, a little slow-release fertilizer, and then put in a semi-shady spot at the edge of some trees (but close enough that I can reach with the hose). In a year or two they are usually large enough to transplant and you've spent nothing but a little time. You might lose a few but it's worth a try. Best of luck!