Creating a woodsy look in the backyard

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Terry Murfreesboro, TN(Zone 7a) Jan 10, 2004

One of these days we might well find the perfect wooded lot and build another house. But until then, I'd like to replicate a "carved out of the woods" look/feel in our current backyard, which is good-sized, probably the better part of a half-acre (the entire lot comprises an acre-plus)

Currently, we have the following mature trees on the property:

1 large Magnolia grandiflora
1 Pine (probably White Pine, but I'm not sure)
1 Malus (unnamed crabapple)
1 "Bradford Pear" (not for long)
3 Hackberry trees, one is very large
2 Purple-leaf Plum
3 Pines - loblolly or something similar
2 Silver-leaf Maples
3 Wild Plums (in terrible shape - they aren't likely to last much longer)
6 Junipers/Eastern Cedars
1 large, unidentified tree with leaves like a pecan, but no nuts. It's very weak-wooded, and a few more years of spring storms may wipe it out altogether (each storm seems to bring down a major branch.)

We also have two Nuttall Oak saplings planted last year, and the following are in containers, ready to be planted this spring:
1 Serviceberry (Amelanchier - to replace the Bradford pear)
2 deciduous magnolias
1 Golden Chain (or possibly Golden Rain) tree

I'm thinking we can start front and center with several of the container ornamentals I listed above, then changing over to hardwoods and deciduous trees, fanning out to encompass the entire back half of the yard. This would leave us with plenty of sunny space on one side for my vegetable garden and perennial beds, and a navigatable path on the other side that leads to a large shed in the opposite back corner.

For the hardwoods and pines, I'm thinking about Southern Oaks and Pitch, Slash or Loblolly pines since their crowns are fairly slender, interspersed with understory trees - Sourwoods, Sassafras, and Dogwoods. Any other suggestions, (please????)

The one major impediment we're aware of is that we have a lot of rock, so trees that really need to put down a massive and deep taproot are pretty much outta luck. However, the current trees' stature gives me hope that others can be successfully grown. Any/all ideas are VERY welcome!!!!

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