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Backyard wildlife habitat???

deadeye

deadeye

Active Member
My wife and I have purchased an 8.5 acres lot that borders more timber. We have about 6 acres in the forest reserve program that somebody started before we bought the lot. We are currently building a house on the property. The backyard has more cleared that could be mowed than what we need. I am struggling with how best to utilize the space (which isn't really that big).

Our forest area has some mature white oaks, and some younger oak varieties. Some potentially could be thinned for competition purposes. We have quite a few hickories. We have a pretty decent amount of black cherry. We have no walnut - which I am trying to introduce. We have just a few locust, aspen, cedars, elm, ash. That is about what I can think of at the moment. I wouldn't mind doing a little TSI work and possibly hinge cutting some, but really don't have any experience and not sure there is much to warrant it right away.

We have some multiflora rose, autumn olive, and honeysuckle. We had the district forester walk it last fall and essentially his take was to eradicate the majority of those. I was wondering your thought on the honeysuckle / autumn olive since it provides decent cover and deer seem to really like it.

I have a little area that I have been trying to get clover going in that is fairly shaded. We also have a larger opening that gets more sun and won't be needed as a backyard grass patch to mow. I am struggling a bit to figure out what would make the best usage of that from a wildlife perspective. Thoughts I have had are more clover or some sort of food plotish setup. I have thought about attempting a prairie type area with grasses and / or flowers. I thought about trying to kind of edge the timber with dogwood shrubs, sumac, fruit tree plantings. It isn't a big area and the soil quality isn't black farm dirt. Currently there is some clover in it with a mix of other grass / weeds. I have mowed it the last 2 years, but not much this year.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.
 
First things first...I would take the foresters advice and eradicate the honeysuckle and autumn olive. I wouldn't worry too much about the soil quality...I started here at my farm with pretty rough southern Iowa clay. After many years of building the soil, I actually have pretty good soil, well at least compared to other farms in this area, where I have been running my plots. Years of the Dbltree rotation have built a lot of organic matter, etc.

Since you will be living there, you could probably manage some fruit trees, apple and pear predominantly. (I gave up on them at my farm because it was too hard to maintain them not living close to them, but I wished I still had them.) You still have plenty of time to plant some stuff later this summer and early fall to get the ball rolling.
 
Amen to the eradicate honeysuckle, autumn olive and multiflora rose!!! All are proof that just because the Iowa State Forestry sells a plant, does NOT automatically make it a good idea to plant it!!! Fruit trees are a great idea. As is a little patch of tall prairie grass. Prairie flowers are cool but the taller grasses that deer like, will overpower the flowers pretty quick so you'll need shorter prairie grass (little bluestem & sideoats grama) if you want pretty. A little clover patch to watch deer graze in would be fun and not much work. You'll have a ton of fun with your land. Just keep in mind that even when Mother Nature doesn't rain when you want or something else doesn't go the way you planned, you are in this for the fun of it so don't take it too seriously. Just feel for the guys trying to make a living growing stuff. I know I need to remind myself of that every so often. :rolleyes: Enjoy yourself and good luck!
 
Yep get rid of the honeysuckle and autumn olive. All good suggestions. For toughness the larger fruit crab apple and wild plum. There is also elderberry,strawberry bush,butterfly bush,nine bark,and arrowwood. I would look at a few chestnut trees also. More so than walnut. You'll soon be running out of room. As you can see we have a sickness. Always planting something.
 
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