howcan I make a forest thicker?

noni

Hello! I'm so excited to have found this forum! I just got a cabin and the forest between my property and the neighbors is thinner than I would like, so I'm wondering if there is a fast growing tree or shrub that can grow in the spaces between the other trees to fill it out and make a denser woods. I know many evergreens will have bare branches on the bottom if the area is too shady, so I'm wondering if any kind of large, bushy plant will do well in this type of setting. The climate is very cold in winter (upstate New York), so it must be hardy, as well. Thank you in advance for your suggestions!

Noni

pawjordan

Hi
You can make the forest thicker by doing away with the white tail deer.
Some of the native understory stuff for NY are:
Devils-walkingstick Aralia spinosa
Staghorn sumac Rhus typhina
Smooth sumac Rhus glabra
Common prickly-ash Zanthoxylum americanum
Common hoptree Ptelea trifoliata
American bladdernut Staphylea trifolia
Sassafrass Sassafras albidum
Stripped maple Acer pensylvanicum
Mountain maple Acer spicatum
Witch hazel Hamamelis virginiana
Mountain laurel Kalmia latifolia
Juneberry Amelanchier arborea
Russian olive Elaeagnus angustifolia
Choke cherry Prunus virginiana
Pin cherry Prunus pennsylvanica
Pussy willow Salix discolor
Wild apple Malus spp.
Nannyberry Viburnum lentago
Buttonbush Cephalanthus occidentalis
Eastern wahoo Euonymus atropurpureus
European buckthorn Rhamnus cathartica

Don't know which will do well by you but at least its a start.
Paul
p.s. Lets dig up some of those herkimar diamonds!

noni

Hi Paul, thanks for the information! Funny you should mention Herkimer diamonds, because when I was a child, we used to take walks on my grandmother's farm in fonda to an area of her property we called diamond mountain, and there we would just find the quartz on the ground without digging at all, in fact we weren't even looking for it, we were just walking and playing! I still have lots of it. Some have very uniform cleavage and are quite clear. I imagine the public area in Herkimer where people used to dig them up is picked clean by now, but I don't know.

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your list of plants, and I'll look them up right away!