We just purchased a new home – well we got married, bought a house and have a baby on the way – all within 5 months, so it’s been a busy time. Anyway, it sits on a very large lot and we have two large stands of birch/maple trees in our front yard. One stand is about 30 x 40 ft and the other is about 40 x 60 ft. We’re working on clearing the smaller stand – clearing the rocks, dead branches, pulling stumps, tilling the earth, etc…

Both of us are fairly new to this gardening business, so I was wondering if anybody had any grand ideas about what could be done on the small stand – it has about 8 trees in it. We’re going to bring in soil but both of us seem to have a creative block when it comes to the next step. I had thought of scattering flower bulbs and seeds all willy-nilly but I think it would look pretty cluttered.

Does anyone have any examples of what could be done in a space like this? We live in Zone 5.