Dave K. wrote:
We live in a suburb of Minneapolis, and the back 3/4 of our backyard is
heavily wooded with 100+ year-old oaks and elms, lots of smaller trees and
saplings, and lots of underbrush.

Although we really enjoy the nature and the privacy offered by the woods
(which is a big reason we bought the house), we wish we could make it more
usable for us to venture into and for the kids to play in. Now there is a
lot of undergrowth and small trees growing in the forest, which makes it
difficult to walk through without getting snapped in the eye by a branch.
Also, because the underbrush is heavy and thick, mosquitoes are particularly
bad in this area. Not a lot of light gets through the canopy of old trees,
so we can't plant anything back there except for shade loving plants.

We like doing our own planting and landscaping, so we don't want to hire a
pro. However, we could use some ideas. How do pro landscape designers
typically handle heavily wooded areas? Do they simply create some transition
trees and shrubs (which we already have) where the lawn meets the forest,
and then leave the forest alone, figuring it can't be improved upon? Or
would a landscape designer typically recommend getting rid of all the wild
underbrush and smaller trees (i.e., those with a trunk that's less than 6
inches in diameter) to make it more accessible, and then planting
shade-loving plants, like hostas in strategic places?

We'd hate to cut down healthy small trees, but I'm not sure there's a way
around it (most of our small trees are tall and thin and too big to
transplant).

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, especially from those people who
have made their wooded yards more usable or hired landscape designers to do
the same!

--

Get someone in to help you identify all the buckthorn and destroy it -- cut
it down, burn it, and paint the stumps with Garlon.

Clear out the briars and poison ivy.

Now see what you have left.

You will probably have to thin the large trees a little; it helps if you
can identify them. I don't know what understory native trees grow up here,
but if I was still in East Texas I would plant dogwoods, redbuds, azaleas,
ferns, and stuff like that.

Best regards,
Bob