[Darwin.]

I have lawns at the front, back and sides of the house and an orchard seperated off down the very back. I want to keep the back lawn for kids to play on but want to turn the front into a woodland area.

A quick guess is that it's roughly 50m x 50m. I have 20ish trees planted on it at the minute, the main one being an oak that's roughly 12-14 years old. Everything else is half that or less. I want to leave weaving grass paths but get rid of the rest of the grass. This will have to be done over the course of a few years and with a fairly limited budget. I'm not looking at planting many more trees, certainly nothing that will grow more that 10'-15'. I'd like a mixture of native Irish shrubs or stuff that would look natural, I don't want it looking too manicured. I'll be throwing in some flowers for the bees too.

Can anyone advise me on what kind of plants I could use for this, how best to keep the grass down etc. Thanks in advance.

[kindredspirit]

That is a very difficult one. Because in nature, it's generally grassland or wood.

Thinking about copses, what grows under the trees there are holly trees, rhododendrons and briars.

There's a very nice spreading raspberry/blackberry thingy (begins with T, I think) that would be ideal. Doesn't grow tall but eliminates grass as it spreads. Easy to control as well. Must look up what it is when I get home tonight.

[Darwin.]

I have some berry bushes to plant at the minute. Gooseberry, Blueberry, Blackcurrant, Raspberry, I'm not sure what else. There could be about 10 bushes of different sizes. The local garden centre has blackberry bushes but I don't know what kind.

Holly trees are seriously expensive if you want to get anything more than a few foot tall and are very slow growing but I would like a few of them about the place. I'll need to take plan it out, divide it into sections, come up with a budget and do it bit by bit.

[Blowin]

You could introduce chickens, as they'll keep the grass down, but otherwise it'll be weed control fabric plus shredded bark

[kindredspirit]

Rubus Tricolour.

https://www.ashridgetrees.co.uk/bramble-creeping-rubus-tricolor

[Darwin.]

Thanks for that.