"Keith Nuttl" wrote in message...
If he has two acres he could make a beautiful natural area with all
kinds of native plants and trees.

Just because the area is natural does not mean that it requires no
maintenance. Just different.

I'm fascinated with this idea but don't know how to apply it practically.
We own 9 acres that are mostly pasture and some dense tree areas. In the
pasture areas there are sporadic trees that are 1'-2' high that we planted
in the past 2-3 years, in other areas plenty of Sweetgums and Cedars, and a
few Oaks coming up (I live in Mississippi). I was just letting most of the
land "go" with trails through it all, and a regular lawn area close to the
house.

It looked kind of strange having a lawn that ended abruptly turning into a
5' high weedy area. Mostly it was turning to blackberry and thorny vines,
and then eventually honeysuckle that strangled everything. I can show you
honeysuckle vines I saved that were 2" in diameter that literally cut oak
saplings in half. There was also a tremendous fire danger in the fall and
winter when all the sedge (sage?) grass turned dry. Not knowing what else
to do, last month I went full bore and bush-hogged everything except for the
trees which I flagged beforehand. It looks ok now, but I dread the idea of
doing that all summer; that was a bear to cut through.

Without buying goats or cows, what other way is there to maintain such an
area except for cutting it like 1 big ole yard? I'm all for reducing my
mowing time.

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Cheers!
Duke