Well, the thing about a "natural" backyard is that sometimes it has good things and sometimes it doesn't. The best approach is really to learn what you have and then decide. That way you can:

- keep the good things
- get rid of only the bad things
- effectively get rid of the bad things (because sometimes you have to know what it is in order to determine the best way to get rid of it)

You can take pictures of or scan leaves of certain plants and use the Name That Plant forum to identify things. There are invasive exotic plants that have moved into "natural" areas. One of (if not THE) worst is Chinese Privet. Learn what that looks like and destroy that with confidence. Chop it down, paint brush killer on the stump; if it is small then just dig it out. It's an untidy looking evergreen plant. Unfortunately people think it is native since they find it in the woods.

Are you in the Atlanta metro area? You can certainly also use local nurseries and your county extension folks to help you id things.

I do think it is worth it to clear out bad stuff. I spent the first 6 months in my house taking out thorny vines (called smilax). Twenty five yard waste bags of it! I'm also working on removing japanese honeysuckle. I used old limbs and dead tree saplings to create informal paths and covered them with grass clippings. Now I can walk around and enjoy nature, finding turtles, lizards, even frogs that come over from my neighbor's pond. Birds fly through and squirrels chatter. It's so nice to have your own piece of nature.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:841472}}

It is well worth it if you don't mind putting in some hard work the first season or two. Cut down all the undesirable underbrush, scrubby trees and out of control vines you decide you don't want and remove the debris. You get pretty handy with a handsaw and a machete. Then I recommend putting down a layer of cardboard and cover with some thick mulch. This will keep much of those weeds from coming back without harming the roots of the trees you want to keep. Cardboard's free so don't be stingy with it and it pays to make sure each piece overlaps its neighbors so there isn't any light getting through to the ground and weeds underneath. You can get mulch from various city or county facilities if you look around. Or use grass clippings or something along those lines like esh recommended. You can skip the cardboard and mulch alone will probably help alot but I still have found using cardboard to be more effective at killing the more persistent weeds with strong underground roots. Spray Roundup or paint brush killer on anything that tries to poke through your efforts and be diligent about it every week or two during the growing season. This only takes me 20 minutes or so to breeze over my acre and spray what few things the cardboard/mulch didn't kill completely. Things should be MUCH improved the following year and require minimal maintenance.

If it's a large area don't overwhelm yourself. You can just focus on small portions at a time, say a 10 x 10 area for 2-3 weeks until you've gotten the weeds fairly suppressed there and then do the same thing to another portion. If I try to do a big area all at once I get tired just thinking about it and then I'm not as inclined to finish the job or do it as thoroughly. Get one portion under control then move on to another, all the while checking the areas you've previously done every couple of weeks or so for anything trying to poke through and spray that sucker good.

At least this is the method that works for me. Your backyard sounds nice!! I love natural settings.

Danielle

Wellcome to the world of clearing out underbrush! I had a hill that was full of all of that stuff, japanese honeysucke, cat briar, privet, brambles, muscadine....It's taken a few years but I'm starting to make progress. In my case, the hill had been stripped during construction, so there were no trees. I planted a bunch of pine trees and just having them grow and cast shade and drop needles has helped deter some of the growth.

I go up on the hill each fall and cut down anything I can. I also do this in spring and during the summer. This year was great because of the drought not much grew!

I am keeping some of the honey suckle and am now letting some sumac stay because of the nice fall color. I do keep cutting down anything thorny. I stopped using round up for the most part because I don't get enough sun in most spots and it didn't really help with the real brushy stuff. You may want to try the special brush round up.

Also, be on the lookout for poison ivy. Right now it should be bright red so you will be able to spot it. But always wear gloves when clearing out brush.

My neighbor, who's 'wild' patch was left intact, has been dumping his grass clippings on his wild hill and it has helped keep down the undergrowth.

Speaking of poison ivy, it just occurred to me that the drought has helped me in my battle against it in my "woodsy" area. I have chopped and sprayed Roundup brush killer on it since we moved here almost 2 years ago. During this hot, dry summer it has just about stopped shooting up more sprouts. Maybe I finally got the best of it. I hope. Just my 2 cents worth...

Whether this would be desirable or possible would depend strictly on your particular situation, but planting shrubs and smaller trees so that direct sunlight doesn't coming into your woods from the sides would strongly discourage regrowth of most of that underbrush, which is dependent on lots of sun. It'd take a handful of years to grow up, but then you'd have a natural woodland that'd just need a little tidying and trimming here and there.

The size of the backyard is just less than an acre. It is on a slope, adding another issue. I am afraid it will be my task to rid the yard of the underbrush as DH dreads running into things that slither. A huge black snake crossed our path and I thought DH was going to faint!

I also have a very natural backyard with hardwoods and a few pines. The other posters are dead on about immediately working on cutting out/Round-up of English Ivy, muscadine, brambles, poison ivy.
What we did and so glad we did was to wait a year before rushing to clear the area.
Watch how your backyard progresses. Note things you want to keep. We marked dogwoods with tape (so we wouldn't accidently cut them down) when they bloomed (we thought were just scrubby bushes until they bloomed). We've cleared brambles and vines away from them so they are growing larger and better. We've discovered mosses, ferns, lots of ginger, horsebalm, virginia creeper (some think it's a weed but it's also native and isn't too invasive), etc.. Walk the land every week or two and just look. Look up. Look down.
The huge black snake was a good omen. Means you have a great habitat. It was probably a king snake. Let it be- it'll kill varmits like mice and rats. We have only seen a couple of king snakes in our yard. Mostly the tiny little leaf debris loving ring neck snakes (only about 6-8" max in length and have a orange/red tummy with a orange/red ring around it's head). Rejoice. They are extremely docile. The other is a pissy little brown snake about 6" long but doesn't like to be handled (note: we always wear work gloves when handling or moving snakes that are in the way of raking or mowing...if you can't identify, be safe). In the 10yrs we have been in our house which is surrounded by forest, we have NEVER ever seen or heard a venomous snake (cottonmouth, rattler, or copperhead).
Happy Discovering your habitat!

We see Rattlers and Copperheads every year here at home as well as Cottonmouths down at the lake in Wedowee so do be careful. But Theras is right, most of the snakes you'll probably encounter are very good for your garden and won't hurt you. But at least learn to identify the baddies for your area and when in doubt stay away.

Danielle

If you try to be selective, you will never finish the project. An undertaking like this is "all or nuthin".

I suggest protective clothing and an electric chainsaw and long handle lopers. When all the bush is cut down, you can start (in the springtime) on a monthly regimen of Roundup.