I bet NYWoodsman would have some good advice. Some mulch around your favorite trees will help but will not be a cure all. You can also go with non-woody native plants, low growing native grasses and low growing native sedges (there are shade tolerant species commercially available from native plant nurseries). Those would be better than nothing and will compete with the invasives. You are likely to get some new multiflora, etc. here and there due to seeds that are still in the soil. I personally would make an effort to favor the native plants since all of this disturbance might end up favoring the invasives that you don't like and you will need some allies to help hold the ground against the invasives.

Mowing is a disturbance that is only going to promote weed infestations in your woodlands.Short term weeds as long as you continue mowing,and everthing else once you stop.Does mowing your lawn prevent weeds?It'll take years for your woods to recover from that management strategy.

How do people maintain prairie and meadow land? People burn it or mow it several times a year. This will keep out the woody plants and keep the grass going strong.

I do not want to use chemical, not only the cost, but also the residual effect on water and other plants. I can not hand weed all the jap. honeysuckles, poison ivy, wild blackberry, wild onion, grape vine, garlic mustard, etc. since this is a very large area. Also I can not plant all the nice ferns, hostas, azelas, and other shade loving plants because of the cost.

Nywoodsman, if you have better suggestion, let me know. I need solutions, not just opinions.

Remember that my woodland was filled with all the wild beasts. I need a practical solution and I do not want them to come back. Native or turf grass may be able to fill in the new space....

Mowing the beasties will wear them out eventually. It will stop the plants with some real supstance to them but not the small weedy things. The little weeds often put out seed even at size tiny. It's the length of day not their size that triggers reproduction. Many also have the knack of producing seed that can lay dormant for years until conditions are just right.

Hire a kid to hand pull some of the junk. Get some ribbon or surveyors tape and mark the desirables you want to stay and let the kid rip.

Is this woodland part of your yard? More of a shade garden with space you intend to use regularly?

You must have the worst on the run or you'd never get a lawn mower through. I grew up on LI, NY and we had a 7 acre wooded area. My father and I always pulled the honeysuckle and junk when we walked. I moved away and my sister eventually bought the house. She wasn't a gardener at all. I was totally amazed at the thick mess that happened in the space of a few years. She only bought and maintained the yard w/ a lawn company. The woodland was sold and leveled. Between the sale the vines and junk turned it into an wall. You couldn't walk in there. I salvaged some of my grandmothers plants that were scattered here and there and never looked back.

This is the wooded section at two sides of the lot, total about 1 AC. I can live with small woody plants, but not the large and woody ones. Also I'll try to cut them before they set seeds.

Some of the trees are a little bit close to the house and I'd like to set a swing set there and put on two benches. It won't be used often.

When I try to get the beasts out, I had to clear the ground, cut all undesired plants, so I can get to the roots of the beasts. Or they will come back very quickly.

Paint the freshly cut stumps of your invasives with Round Up (Rodeo in wetland areas) mixed at high strength and spray the other naughties with Round Up to the extent you can without hitting the plants you want to keep. Round Up (at least so far) has not been determined to be particularly persisent, etc. Even if you don't spray ever again you will want to start a little bit ahead of the game. Repeated cutting of invasives helps but there never is an end to this battle. Thickly planting natives helps a lot also. I have a bed of native flowers that does get the occassional invasive but very few since it is so thickly planted. Some natives seem to be able to hold their own than others -- jewel weed is one of those hardy natives and it is not woody and won't bother you.

when removing unwanted trees it's best just to cut them off at ground level.There is no reason to dig the roots up,it just disturbs the ground,invites weeds,and injurs the intertwined roots of the surrounding trees you are keeping.Most tree stumps will die right away,or will die after you cut the first flush of sprouts a year later.Stumps can be cut low enough to pass a mover over,and as it rots away unseen,the surrounding trees will more quickly that over the missing tree's rot zone.Remember any open soil,damaged sod,or unused sunlight invites weeds.

I absolutely would not mow. Start growing native plnats from seed and spores.

Thanks for all the posts.

What I'm trying to do here is that, I need to first clean all the debris and get to all the invasive roots, particularly Jap. Honeysuckle vines. This is the only way to yank out the roots. You do not want to have anything left or it will come back to life very quickly.

I'll also need to dig up or round-up any remaining multiflora rose roots. This is much easier than Jap. honeysuckle.

When they are under control, I plan to leave it natural. I plan to trim it when the invasives like garlic mustard tries to set seeds. I'll also try to control the height of the wild plants, particularly the erect wild blackberry (?). The grass/plants under the woods are now about 5' tall.

Allowing the woody understory to thrive will simplify your efforts.The local native shrubs and bushes will add to the shade at ground level and help suppress the incursion of weeds.Since jap honeysuckle is practicly evergreen in your area,I would concentrat my efforts in the fall when its the only thing left with green leaves.Stay away from imported mulch which may contain weed seeds,I made that mistake.Cutting garlic mastard is ineffective.Collecting the seeds before they drop,early summer,during the end of the flowering cycle by pulling the whole plant works best for me.The root usually comes up whole then.Your efforts dont have to be total but relentless,as you nudge the woodlot back towards eco health.

Ladyslppr, your leaf mulch plan has worked for me. But it takes a LOT of leaves.

I just piled up oak leaves in two small areas under the trees and a few years later the weeds were minimal and the soil was good.

Last year we tried the leaf mulch in a larger area which had been cleared of honeysuckle and bad roses. The bad roots were still in the ground. Some honeysuckle came through, but mostly the area stayed clear.

So, this year we hope to collect the neighbors' leaves and try another area. It seems to be the best solution we've found.

Good luck to you.

Your plan including periodic mowing will work to keep plants down and from reproducing.

However your plan to introduce turf grass is probably not the best solution. Turf grass prefers full sun. Sure they make shade varieties of turf grass, but really they just tolerate shade - it will not perform well there - which means it will not be low maintenance ... required constant reseeding and constant weed control. "Grass" is not commonly found as ground cover under trees and there is a reason for it...

And typically I would think once you get your invasives under control that you would probably only need to mow about once per year ---

And heavy mulch will keep stuff from growing...

For the shaded areas, I'm still removing cleaning Jap honeysuckles and wild blackberries and keeping most of the tree seedlings. Then I'll put back the leaves and removed plants as mulch. Mulching is about the only way to keep away the beasts. I'll try to restore it to what woodland should be.

For the half-shade areas, I'll expand the lawn areas and let weed killers and mowers do the work. This is not woodland, but just taken over by the invasives.

This will take another year or more to keep the wild ones under control...

How anyone can consider collecting and speading mulch constitutes"low mantenance'is beond me.A properly restored woodland is self-maintaining.Restoring the high and low shrubs,understory trees and spring perennials that normally absorb the light that filters down to the forest floor will prevent the reincursion of weeds.Mowing may prevent growth as long as you mow but what happens after the mower breaks down or gets bored..The empty habitat will refill with the most agressive plants around,weeds.It's hardly a long term solution.Importing leaves to spread around in the woods is the silliest thing I ever heard.Once you stop,those added leaves will break down and encourage even more growth.If you want to shade the ground simply grow plants above it.Really,driving around the woods on a mower is really on the wrong page.

It is a silly idea trying to build a perfect woodland garden with a large lot. When you spend $$$ and effort to restore a section of the land into garden, the rest will be taken over by the wild beasts. All the wild things won't wait for you to get to the perfect garden.

Be realistic...

I think this thread shows that low maintenance is itself a tough goal. But things do improve with time. I think that a few large initial investments of time will mean that you need to do less in the future. I still get multiflora rose sprouts but the multiflora covers a lot less area at the land I help out at than it used to. I have been using a Weed Wrench here and there for some woody invasives and it works well. Repeated cutting of the beasties, selective mulching around favorite saplings, and herbicide where appropriate has also helped. Don't bother to thin out woody plants you like just yet. Chances are that deer and other critters will do a lot of thinning for you. Around now and the next month or two is a good time of year to go after the beasties as many of the good guys are now gone or dormant and vegetation in general will be less thick and make it easier to work (there are less ticks than in spring as well). In fact, I do some of my best battling with invasives throughout late fall and all winter. "Planting Noah's Garden" by Sarah Stein has a lot of good tips. I have been pleasantly surprised by some desireable volunteers showing up here and there where I have suppressed the invasives.

Erecting a deer fence is an essential first step for any restoritive project to be effective.I wasted ten years befor I realised that.

This is funny, what is the cost to build 2 600' long fences and 2 400' long fences?!

The property I help out with is about 8.5 acres. I don't think we will ever get a deer fence for the whole thing in the budget. However, we do have a propogation cage where we start saplings and then transplant them out after they have gotten a little bigger and a little less tasty to deer. In contrast, I planted an oak a few years ago that is amazingly still alive but has gotten no taller as someone keeps nibbling at it.

It wouldn't cost much to deer-fence individual trees you were trying to propagate. My lot has over a half mile of perimeter- way out of my budget! But you could protect a number of small trees, and when they were big enough to fend for themselves, move the protection on to the next batch. I'm curious about low-maintanence woodlands- my lot in SC is surprisingly clear of anything but desireable trees, and I see no evidence of anyone touching it for many years. You can easily walk around comfortably, with relatively few small understory trees, and no brush or vines. I'm kind of afraid to do any thinning, as I don't want to set off an invasion! I may just clear an acre for the house and a garden, and not touch the rest.

Okay, I don't have a woodland, so you can take that into consideration. I do have a yard that is on the edge of 4 other yards that all have trees. We also had a shrub border under the canopies of these trees that had no attention for 20 years and was full of saplings, poison ivy, overgrown shrubs and weeds. We just ripped it all out in the past two years. What we did was cover it with a thick layer of cardboard and covered that with bark mulch to hold it until we could plant with natives. It was very effective. We now have added new shrubs and beginning to add mostly native perennials. It was quite a job, but worth it.

If I had a larger space, like a woodland, I would be apprehensive to remove the poison ivy, honeysuckle, multiflora roses..gosh what a trio...and NOT cover it with something to keep it from coming back before I could get something more native established. So depending on what you are trying to achieve and how much time you have, I would do one of two things.

One I think what nywoodsman said makes sense. Once you got out the invasives, allow the understory to start growing back, but only if you can patrol it and remove any new beginnings of invasives that might be coming back.

If you are afraid you won't get to it before it gets out of hand, then I would take one small section at a time, remove all the invasives, cover with cardboard and mulch and add native plants that you have started either from seed or purchased. When one section is done and under control, do another until you get back to where you want it to be. Removing the invasives is back breaking work. Who wants to do all that and then see it all come back again and do it all over again.

That would be my best guess..good luck. :-)

I do something that is somewhere between the extremes that Prairiemoon2 is hinting at. At least a few times a year I try cut back almost all of the invasives to slow down their spread and seed production. But I also have special areas that I more intensely protect and give much more attention.

I am confused. Do you have 1 acre in woodland, or 1 acre total with woodland strips? In any case I would not mow or "dig up" roots. Weeds and invasive exotics take advantage of DISTURBED areas. Disturbed means disturbing the soil so that fresh weed seeds are brought to the surface and new weed seeds find freshly dug soil to land on. Disturbed also means EDGES - placed where clearing has caused the woodland shade to suddenly have sun sloping in. To avoid disturbed soil, mulch and cut undesirables off at ground level and paint stubs with with concentrated weedkiller. Honeysuckle and poison ivy are best eliminated this way. The cost and env impact are minimal. I use a medicine dropper in one hand and pruners in the other. You can't avoid having edges to your shaded woodland, so be prepared to mulch heavily at edges, or plant native woodies at edges to soak up the sun. After a little extra attention when first planted, they will be zero maintenance. I have found that my fallen leaves eventually blow off my 2 acres of clay woodland. If I leave the small fallen branches instead of tidying up, the leaves stay, make good contact with the soil, and produce a humous-y layer. Please don't mow. You will only disturb things more and eventually give up or have to resort to large volume use of herbicide. Woodland requires work at first (I personally think any low maintenance landscape is an oxymoron.), but it will get easier and more beautiful. If you have just strips of woodland, then you have all edges, no real woodland, and you should just landscape it with shrubs and mulch like you would any other garden bed. Mowing "natural areas" just produces dust which you will breathe, and more branched woody understory shrubs.

I too am somewhat confused as to the area under discussion. The initial post states "wooded border" which to my mind is not a woodland but a garden border incorporating some trees; however another post states fencing 600'x 600'x400'x400' which is more than the typical "builder's acre" of 200'x200'x200'x200'. Also, what type of trees are in this wooded area? What is the shade/sun exposure? If the space has lots of pines and oaks, w/partial shade, you can underplant with dwarf conifers, rhododendrons and azaleas that grow short and wide or massive for screening. If you want a more natural look, you might be able to get species mountain laurel to grow - but that may be tricky in NJ.

If you are trying to maintain a true woodland, then walk through local woods/forests to see what is growing beyond the invasives you don't want. To my mind a natural woodland is leaf/branch detritus and all the other woody/viney/brushy/leafy/flowery stuff that occurs naturally. That is low maintenance. Let it go, just round-up the "beasties" as needed and keep a cleared path, mulched over. If you continue to mow and rake and clear, all you will end up with is compacted subsoils, dusty surface dirt that will erode with wind/water and poorly nourished trees. Woodland soils need the rotting of annual leaf litter to keep healthy. In its absense, you need to provide other forms of nutrients and aeration - which is hardly low maintenance.

As for grasses, try sedges (carex) or sheep fescue, which is a nice soft, short grass that tolerates shade. I like it unmown, but since it is a forage grass subject to grazing pressures, it should tolerate mowing if that is your preference.

Just my 2 cents...

I have found that by not disturbing the native brambles,blackberries,and raseberries,the native shrubs rebound more quickly.the surrounding thickets seems to offer more brows-protection for the emerging growth by restricting deer movement in the winter.I would get rid of the grandaflora roses'wineberry'barberry and anything non-native though,as their growth is rampant and will overwelm the native shrubs. I actually took photos of the,1/4 acre,seven foot high patch of blackberries in my front yard this autumn,protecting the viburnums,winterberries,spicebushes,highbush blueberrys moosewood maples,dogwoods and all the other tender wooded plants self-seeding amongst them,because the late-autumn color was so striking.The best sort of gardening usually happens all by itself and,here,I mean that strickly in the asthetic sense.The beauty of nature usually doesn't follow a straight line,and it's self-emergence is hard to anticipate.Sometimes by not thawarting natural processes we can accomplish more with our efforts.

I can second NYWoodsman's observation about native thickets. A bunch of our successful volunteer shrubs and trees have arisen from thickets and also within groups of juniper shrubs. Of course, when some naughty vines get in there it is difficult to go in there after them but at least there are trees to save.
Remember, things do improve over time which decreases the need for maintenance. However, restoration of a woodland can itself become addicting. If you are like me you will realize many of your initial goals (my initial goal was to relieve the mature tree canopy of invasive vines) but then move on to even more goals for the restoration of your woods. It's a lot of work but I happen to enjoy it.

Just a word of hope from someone who 'inherited' a restored woodland environment: in the early 60's, the original owner of my home decided to buck the trend of suburban lawns and start planting native trees and plants throughout her .75 acre. When I arrived in 1999, it really _had_ turned into a reasonably low-maint. woodland, with Jeffersonia, bloodroot [two types], violets [7 types], shadbushes, native gingers and bleeding hearts, all having a marvelous time beneath the dogwoods, pines, stewartia, and persimmons.

There's a gorgeous yellow-wood in the front yard, and hemlocks for the owls... All within 4 miles of the King of Prussia mall!

Do I have to fight the poison ivy, and the assorted evils listed here?

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/wildplant/serious.aspx

....yes, but having the natives well established means there's less room for the baddies.

The big problem right now is that my job is now in Baltimore, and I need someone new to take a turn tending the garden....

Here is a link that might be useful: Pennsylvania invasive weed listing