Creating a food forest on ~5 acres + plant/tree resources + planning resources - Ask Extension
Hello!
I recently bought not quite 9 acres in Marydel, MD - of which ~6 are prior crop fields with ~3 in woods.
My goal is to re-forest the open l...
Knowledgebase
Creating a food forest on ~5 acres + plant/tree resources + planning resources #850400
Asked September 18, 2023, 3:44 PM EDT
Hello!
I recently bought not quite 9 acres in Marydel, MD - of which ~6 are prior crop fields with ~3 in woods.
My goal is to re-forest the open land and create a type of food forest using only native plants to this area. The other side will be either the same or incorporate some meadow. I can't afford to do it all at one time, so it'll be a multi-year project. Three sides of the property have tax ditches with one side being the largest with reeds (not sure if giant or type) taking over. That also leads to some areas that are more marshy. There are frogs, several grasshoppers, many spiders, dragonflies, variety of skinks, humming birds, eagles, vultures, red and grey squirrels, unknown snakes (so far) and some deer here and there. I'm thrilled to have them so the least impact to what already lives here with a potential positive impact required. There will be no herb/pesticides sprayed on this property going forward.
One issue I'm having is the native plant listings differs depending on where you look. For example, I have Tickseed Sunflowers. I don't see them listed on this site, but when googling, I can see that while not native, they are naturalized?? and potentially beneficial. Then another site says native. I just don't know what to believe. When I mowed recently, I left as many as possible. I also have a lot of sedge and chicory which I've read both positive and negative things about. The chicory is pretty and comes back quickly enough that I've just been mowing it but I still can't determine if it's a good or bad plant.
Another issue I'm having is trying to identify every plant or tree that is already here. Sadly, I've not yet to find anything native or at least non-aggressive and that is difficult to do on this acreage but I'm trying. Just found an Autumn Olive and was almost excited to have a berry shrub only to find out it's aggressive and not native. I do believe I've found some false Virginia creeper and some actual Virginia creeper. Besides that and the sunflowers, that's all I've gotten besides poison ivy - which I will remove from the perimeter but leave within the woods. I understand it's beneficial. Also found some beautiful Datura that are sadly not native to the east coast.
I recently found a company creating food forests in MD and looked at their designs thinking I could do similar but it seems they even utilize non-natives (pears and such).
What I'm looking for:
1. A true/accurate listing of Maryland Eastern Shore native plants, shrubs and trees.
2. A resource to purchase a majority of the above at #1. Prefer a small business if possible.
3. A resource to provide consultation or design input that won't break the break (had quotes of ~2k+ for a 50' x 50' design at my prior residence).
Thank you for your time, I appreciate it.
Caroline County Maryland
Expert Response
There is no single consensus among specialists and biologists/ecologists as to what defines a native species, in part because species ranges are always in flux, even from natural causes. A typical definition for a "native" plant (in North America) is a species present in an area prior to European settlement. Native American peoples likely moved a number of plants around via trade and other means, and also did affect land by burning or clearing through other means. Therefore, some degree of human impacts on the ecosystem in this area have been ongoing for a long time, so a convenient benchmark of more severe or rapid impacts due to settlement is used as a reference point when considering a species native or not to a particular area. Plants don't obey state dividing lines of course, but ecoregion -- the ecologically-defined regions that take into account soil type, climate, topography, etc. -- can be a useful way to follow patterns of plant nativity and likely zones within a species can move on its own. The U.S. EPA has differing levels of ecoregion data online that might be worth exploring if you're curious.
Given all of this, one organization's list of native species can differ a little from another's if there is disagreement or ambiguity over when and how a species arrived at its currently-observed distribution. Some plant "migrations" may have been human-assisted historically, such as Coneflower (Echinacea) in Maryland, where it is not generally considered to be naturally native. Botanical names are also sometimes misleading, since Spigelia marilandica, while hardy here, is not actually native within Maryland. Resources like the publication Vascular Plants of Maryland is one way to check a reference list to see what is considered to be native to the state. (The list includes non-natives found here since it's intended to be a catalog of species overall, but it does identify non-natives as such. The same is true for Maryland Biodiversity Project, which collects citizen observation records of any organism found wild in Maryland, noting which are non-native on individual species pages.)
Our University of Maryland Extension pages featuring native plant species are far from exhaustive because our intent is to highlight a handful of more easily-obtained or showy species that gardeners may want to get started with. Thousands of plant species are native in Maryland and even those popular in gardening or with decorative traits that provide aesthetic appeal would number in the hundreds, a database we are not set up to publish. The example you mentioned, Bearded Beggarticks (Bidens polylepis, which can also go by the name Long-bracted Tickseed Sunflower), is native in Maryland and found in at least half the state.
Here are some online references for listing native plants; their focus will be on those not too difficult to obtain at nurseries and which have more decorative appeal for home landscapes than, say, habitat restoration use. (For example, poison ivy could certainly be included in a restoration type of planting but is not likely to be recommended for home landscapes for obvious reasons.)
There are certainly non-native plant species that can benefit wildlife, and wildlife feeding on their berries/seeds is one way such species spread into new areas and "escape" gardens. Scientists researching the impacts of non-native species are continuing to better understand how some of these species help or hurt others (such as caterpillars being able to eat or not eat non-native species that are related to the native species they evolved to eat), but such interactions can be vary hard to study in terms of proving a direct cause and effect given how complex biology can be. There is no consistent outcome and no completely "bad" or "good" plants among non-natives; some non-native food sources might seem perfectly fine as a source of animal nutrition while others might be poor substitutes. In some cases, one aspect of the plant might feed insects or other animals but other traits of the plant might not. (For example, butterfly bush can supply nectar to bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, but its foliage hardly supports any caterpillars or other leaf-feeding insects, compared to a native plant that probably does based on its coevolution with our local organisms. As with any non-native or invasive plant, it's taking up space in the ecosystem that would probably be better-served by a locally-native species that co-evolved with the surrounding organisms and supports more food web interactions.) In the grand scheme of things, Chicory is likely having far less of an impact on an ecosystem as a whole than more substantial plants displacing natives and altering habitats, like Callery ('Bradford') Pear trees and Phragmites reeds.
Plant ID can be challenging when having to rely on foliage traits alone, since leaf shape can be influenced by plant maturity, genetics, and growing conditions (how much sun/shade, for instance). Usually, flowers and/or fruit are needed to solidify an identification. Some plant ID apps are not bad, at least in getting you close to a family or genus level, but are not perfect and might mis-ID something. You can use resources like iNaturalist (one source Maryland Biodiversity Project pulls data from) to help get an ID confirmed from specialists using the site.
Disturbed habitats and soils are likely to be invaded by non-native species that spread aggressively; it's in their nature to colonize available space, just as it is for "pioneer" species native here. Therefore, it's not surprising that areas near roads, farmland, and places occasionally flooded by storms or other natural processes that remove vegetation (storm damage taking down trees, etc.) become colonized with non-natives or have a seed bank in the soil that includes some non-native species which take advantage of the opportunity. Since they tend to be good at competing with other plants, they can more easily take over such conditions. Minimizing disturbance is one way to help support the continued presence of native plants.
UMD Extension has limited information thus far on food forest planting, though this may change as we continually amend our web resources with sustainable, climate-conscious, and native plant-focused gardening recommendations. Many familiar fruits and vegetables from grocery stores and farm stands are not native to North America, and sometimes there is more limited information about the degree of edibility of native fruiting plants. (Say, what might need cooking and can't be eaten raw. As one example, pawpaw fruits are edible, but some data suggests that too much consumption may risk long-term health consequences. We are not medically trained so cannot speak to these issues with any detail, but you can do your own research into this issue if you are curious.)
Here are a few ideas for locally-native edible trees and shrubs, some of which might be commonplace or scarce on the coastal plain; it's not an exhaustive list:
Miri
Given all of this, one organization's list of native species can differ a little from another's if there is disagreement or ambiguity over when and how a species arrived at its currently-observed distribution. Some plant "migrations" may have been human-assisted historically, such as Coneflower (Echinacea) in Maryland, where it is not generally considered to be naturally native. Botanical names are also sometimes misleading, since Spigelia marilandica, while hardy here, is not actually native within Maryland. Resources like the publication Vascular Plants of Maryland is one way to check a reference list to see what is considered to be native to the state. (The list includes non-natives found here since it's intended to be a catalog of species overall, but it does identify non-natives as such. The same is true for Maryland Biodiversity Project, which collects citizen observation records of any organism found wild in Maryland, noting which are non-native on individual species pages.)
Our University of Maryland Extension pages featuring native plant species are far from exhaustive because our intent is to highlight a handful of more easily-obtained or showy species that gardeners may want to get started with. Thousands of plant species are native in Maryland and even those popular in gardening or with decorative traits that provide aesthetic appeal would number in the hundreds, a database we are not set up to publish. The example you mentioned, Bearded Beggarticks (Bidens polylepis, which can also go by the name Long-bracted Tickseed Sunflower), is native in Maryland and found in at least half the state.
Here are some online references for listing native plants; their focus will be on those not too difficult to obtain at nurseries and which have more decorative appeal for home landscapes than, say, habitat restoration use. (For example, poison ivy could certainly be included in a restoration type of planting but is not likely to be recommended for home landscapes for obvious reasons.)
- Native Plants for Wildlife Habitat and Conservation Landscaping: Chesapeake Bay Watershed
- Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay: Native Plant Center (essentially a web-searchable database of the above list, where you can select traits like "coastal plain")
- Native Plants of Maryland
- Maryland Native Plant Society: Landscaping with Native Plants
There are certainly non-native plant species that can benefit wildlife, and wildlife feeding on their berries/seeds is one way such species spread into new areas and "escape" gardens. Scientists researching the impacts of non-native species are continuing to better understand how some of these species help or hurt others (such as caterpillars being able to eat or not eat non-native species that are related to the native species they evolved to eat), but such interactions can be vary hard to study in terms of proving a direct cause and effect given how complex biology can be. There is no consistent outcome and no completely "bad" or "good" plants among non-natives; some non-native food sources might seem perfectly fine as a source of animal nutrition while others might be poor substitutes. In some cases, one aspect of the plant might feed insects or other animals but other traits of the plant might not. (For example, butterfly bush can supply nectar to bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, but its foliage hardly supports any caterpillars or other leaf-feeding insects, compared to a native plant that probably does based on its coevolution with our local organisms. As with any non-native or invasive plant, it's taking up space in the ecosystem that would probably be better-served by a locally-native species that co-evolved with the surrounding organisms and supports more food web interactions.) In the grand scheme of things, Chicory is likely having far less of an impact on an ecosystem as a whole than more substantial plants displacing natives and altering habitats, like Callery ('Bradford') Pear trees and Phragmites reeds.
Plant ID can be challenging when having to rely on foliage traits alone, since leaf shape can be influenced by plant maturity, genetics, and growing conditions (how much sun/shade, for instance). Usually, flowers and/or fruit are needed to solidify an identification. Some plant ID apps are not bad, at least in getting you close to a family or genus level, but are not perfect and might mis-ID something. You can use resources like iNaturalist (one source Maryland Biodiversity Project pulls data from) to help get an ID confirmed from specialists using the site.
Disturbed habitats and soils are likely to be invaded by non-native species that spread aggressively; it's in their nature to colonize available space, just as it is for "pioneer" species native here. Therefore, it's not surprising that areas near roads, farmland, and places occasionally flooded by storms or other natural processes that remove vegetation (storm damage taking down trees, etc.) become colonized with non-natives or have a seed bank in the soil that includes some non-native species which take advantage of the opportunity. Since they tend to be good at competing with other plants, they can more easily take over such conditions. Minimizing disturbance is one way to help support the continued presence of native plants.
UMD Extension has limited information thus far on food forest planting, though this may change as we continually amend our web resources with sustainable, climate-conscious, and native plant-focused gardening recommendations. Many familiar fruits and vegetables from grocery stores and farm stands are not native to North America, and sometimes there is more limited information about the degree of edibility of native fruiting plants. (Say, what might need cooking and can't be eaten raw. As one example, pawpaw fruits are edible, but some data suggests that too much consumption may risk long-term health consequences. We are not medically trained so cannot speak to these issues with any detail, but you can do your own research into this issue if you are curious.)
Here are a few ideas for locally-native edible trees and shrubs, some of which might be commonplace or scarce on the coastal plain; it's not an exhaustive list:
- American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana)
- Pawpaw (Asimina triloba)
- Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) and various Hickories (Carya species, which includes Pecan though that species is not native to MD)
- American Hazelnut (Corylus americana)
- Serviceberry (Amelanchier, several species)
- American Plum (Prunus americana), Chickasaw Plum (Prunus angustifolia), Allegheny Plum (Prunus alleghaniensis), and Beach Plum (Prunus maritima)
- Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis)
- various Blueberries (Vaccinium) and Huckleberry (Gaylussacia)
- various grapes, such as Fox Grape (Vitis labrusca)
- American Cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon)
- Allegheny Blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis) and a few other species
- Maryland Native Plant Society vendors list
- Mt. Cuba Center (a public garden in DE that focuses on natives) nursery list for MD, DE, PA, and NJ
- Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional - individuals trained in sustainable landscaping techniques, sometimes with specializations like stormwater management or reforestation, who will presumably be more familiar with installing native species overall than your average landscaper, though not necessarily with the focus of food gardening (you'd need to ask candidates for hire about their experience with that; use the "find a pro" tool to search their web database)
Miri
