Question
My husband and I have a home in the mountains that is surrounded with trees and brush, we have part of our property that we want to landscape that is very wooded and we have no idea where to even begin. It looks like a forest, we would like to landscape this area making it blend in with the surroundings but in a manicured way. We would like to go in and clear out the ground covering and some of the trees but not all of the trees. But the thing is we have no clue were to even begin to start. If you can picture a piece of property that has been purchased for development that is wooded like a natural forest that is what this piece of property looks like. Can you give me any ideas on how or where to even begin? PLEASE!

Answer
Tracy:
Question for you...If you bought a beautiful house in the mountains...why did you buy it?

Wasn't it to get away from all the mundane city life and the dull "manicured" over maintained, over fertilized and heavily sprayed landscapes of the suburbs?

Is your new home surrounded by natural forest that likely took years to colonize poor mountain soil?

If the answer is yes, then why don't you just improve it and not try  manicure things like they do in the suburbs. Mountain landscape shouldn't look like a suburban subdivision landscape. If you try to "manicure" nature it will require intensive care and regular maintenance and unlike city suburbs your neighbors are wild meadows and woods not more manicured lots. The areas around your lot wont be maintained, meaning you'll be fighting an uphill battle to keep out wind blown weed seeds, etc.  Why not simply let nature do its thing and enjoy your weekends?.

You can still embellish and improve it though.

I would start by going online to determine the list of exotic and invasive plants and native plants for your area and use that list as a guide for what to remove and what to keep. You may also want to thin out some trees for light and remove any trees that may be too close to your house. Try and keep nice hardwoods like oaks and maples, etc. I would then put around your house a thick layer of wood mulch that will give you a more controlled look than just the leaves that are usually on a forest floor. After this you may want to determine which areas are focal points from within your house and from the driveway approaches and walk ways. In those focal points place native flowering shrubs and flowering trees that you like, but also that will grow in your locale with little or no maintenance or irrigation. You may also want to plant some evergreens in certain areas to screen undesirable views or utilities like air conditioning units. You can group shrubs in masses at the wood's edge and add large flowering shrubs for accents. Finally, you can embellish the ground cover with flowering bulbs and perennials planted in groups and at the bases of trees where you are not likely to walk.

Here are a couple of links to good short articles on the subject.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2065679/Creating-A-Garden-in-the-Woods
http://www.maine.gov/doc/mfs/woodswise/woodscaping.html

You should search the internet for woodland gardens or forest gardens or low maintenance gardens to learn more about how to best accomplish your goals.

Best of luck and remember, for the world to become a safer healthier place for our children we all have to start rethinking how we landscape.

Sean J Murphy,LA
www.seanjmurphy.com
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