My back yard is a city forested area, adjacent to a park. Previous owner and previous neighbor cleared several yards into the woods, to protect there yards from deer ticks I have a dozen pear and apple root stock(mostly bud9, a dozen blueberries, a couple of quince ba , Some currents, a couple of serviceberry Kiwi Vines and a pawpaw, several siberian peach seedlings and suckers from my plum trees.
I have deer visit every day. My question is not weither I should plant but where should I plant each to maximize its potential. Like should I put the blueberries in the back closer to the forest or close to the fence.
I am about to harvest a lot of garlic mustard. and pull up a lot of weeds
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One thing is light. The other is planting things closer to your house that you need to protect or visit on a regular basis. Avoid creating an all you can eat deer buffet next to the forest boundary.
Rotting log and Blueberries? A natural combination. We have blueberries and huckleberries growing very well around downed trees in the understory…
I’ve heard of people observing natural deer paths and creating large, long, sacrificial bramble hedges that sort of funnel them away from your property - they eat berries and leaves on the forest side as they go, get full, and continue on their path, ideally without taking the time to turn the corner and go all the way around and into your main yard to destroy your more valuable crops. Obviously not a perfect solution, but might reduce damage to some extent.
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I had a similar situation as you where my property backs up into state land. I am in the process of building a dead hedge to ‘guide’ wild life away from the more precious crops. Around this border I have been planting raspberries, honey berries, and letting the wineberries take over. The next layer I have persimmon and hazelnut and a bed of asparagus which I fenced from rabbits. I also put in some paw paws and mulberry. I have more of an experimental perspective that if I can harvest what the wildlife don’t get then I will be happy.
I would love some wineberries. But all the vegitation grows towards the house. I previously cleared that entire area of blackberries and hand pulled yards of greenbrier. the pikes of dead thorn bushes now protects the remaining greenbrier.
