Two years ago, I decided that I just didn't have enough to do, so I rousted the boys to help me start a woodland garden. We've got about 2 and a half acres, most of it fairly heavily wooded. So first I got some serious hired help with chainsaws to take out all the small trees and understory junk, and then remove limbs from the big trees to a height of about 20 feet. This is called 'limbing up' and it creates a nice, open feeling in your woodland, emphasizes nice large trunks and draws the eye upward to the majestic canopy. Then the hard work of creating beds. That's the most difficult, because you can't dig it very deep (too many tree roots from the established trees) and if you add soil on top of the tree roots, its not good for the trees. Its amazing how sensitive trees are to just the right location for their roots. I've found you can dig a few inches, then add another 6 inches of soil on top, and create decent beds that will accomodate shallow-rooted perennials like hostas, dicentras, lily of the valley, astilbes. Shrubs like azaleas and rhododendrons are great, and so is mountain laurel and andromeda. Anyway, I'm working on it and its looking pretty good this year, but it's still going to take awhile.

The most amazing woodland garden I've ever seen is the garden created by Ruth and Jim Levitan on their small property in Stamford, CT. This garden is featured in many books, but there aren't very good links to it on the web - but here's one: http://web.mit.edu/giving/spectrum/spring98/levitan.html. Another great garden that has a lot of good woodland and incredibly creative ways of combining plants in non-traditional ways is The Garden of Ideas, in my own hometown of Ridgefield, CT. Check out some info on this one at: http://www.gardenofideas.com/hist.htm.