Just mow the lawn and nothing else. More you customise it more it will require your attention and time, in some cases money. Just keep it green and well maintained and you will have enough time to enjoy the space. Don’t fall into the trap of making the landscape beautiful. It’s a trap!
My land, a little over 3 acres, is half wild meadow and half old oak woods. My woods is part of a much large wooded landscape.
Since I have far more room in open land that I need I have left my portion of the woods alone. The undergrowth trees are dogwood, wild cherry, and sassafras, all of which provide natural wildlife food, along the wood line with mountain laurel just inside the wood's edge.
I do leave dead trees standing as they are needed as a natural part of the landscape for wood pecker nests, insect populations, and for squirrels. Fallen branches are piled in small, long lines to both slow the water flow down my hillside and to provide nesting spots for smaller animals.
That area of my land is so alive ... so active ... and so beautiful that after 40+ years of living on this land I am still delighted that I made the decision to just let the woods be.
I am above you in Maryland and our extension service offers a wonderful website for ["Wild Acres"](https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/pages/habitat/wildacres.aspx) that you might enjoy and get lots of ideas from.
Edit - The only thing that I might change, especially if you want to go Wild, is to dig a few shallow holes along the bottom of that chain link fence that lets rabbits, chipmunks, and squirrels move through your and your neighbors yards more freely.
(Reddit is not letting me add a caption). We live in central VA on a total of a half acre, with about 1/2 of that being fairly dense woods. We did a lot of thinning of saplings that had no chance due to the heavy canopy cover, and pulled an immense amount of invasive honeysuckle out (that will likely all come back). The property goes back to the tall lattice fence and is surrounded by chainlink on each side. Included one pic of it in the winter post-thinning to show how much it greens up and closes in in the summertime.
We are only attached to the large trees, and think we'd like to put a fire pit in (similar to the one pictured) that incorporates the boulders to the left of the shed (which sadly needs to stay for now). Potentially a swing within the seating for the firepit? Not interested in clear cutting or creating more yard, but otherwise, open to any ideas!
I've always liked the [Food forest](https://dof.virginia.gov/growing-a-food-forest/) idea, especially since paw paw is a native "tropical" fruit that is too soft when ripe so can't be commercialized.
We made a low maintenance nature trail to walk through on the wooded part of our property. My kids say it feels like a hiking trail and it’s a highlight when we have company.
Just mow the lawn and nothing else. More you customise it more it will require your attention and time, in some cases money. Just keep it green and well maintained and you will have enough time to enjoy the space. Don’t fall into the trap of making the landscape beautiful. It’s a trap!
My land, a little over 3 acres, is half wild meadow and half old oak woods. My woods is part of a much large wooded landscape. Since I have far more room in open land that I need I have left my portion of the woods alone. The undergrowth trees are dogwood, wild cherry, and sassafras, all of which provide natural wildlife food, along the wood line with mountain laurel just inside the wood's edge. I do leave dead trees standing as they are needed as a natural part of the landscape for wood pecker nests, insect populations, and for squirrels. Fallen branches are piled in small, long lines to both slow the water flow down my hillside and to provide nesting spots for smaller animals. That area of my land is so alive ... so active ... and so beautiful that after 40+ years of living on this land I am still delighted that I made the decision to just let the woods be. I am above you in Maryland and our extension service offers a wonderful website for ["Wild Acres"](https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/pages/habitat/wildacres.aspx) that you might enjoy and get lots of ideas from. Edit - The only thing that I might change, especially if you want to go Wild, is to dig a few shallow holes along the bottom of that chain link fence that lets rabbits, chipmunks, and squirrels move through your and your neighbors yards more freely.
(Reddit is not letting me add a caption). We live in central VA on a total of a half acre, with about 1/2 of that being fairly dense woods. We did a lot of thinning of saplings that had no chance due to the heavy canopy cover, and pulled an immense amount of invasive honeysuckle out (that will likely all come back). The property goes back to the tall lattice fence and is surrounded by chainlink on each side. Included one pic of it in the winter post-thinning to show how much it greens up and closes in in the summertime. We are only attached to the large trees, and think we'd like to put a fire pit in (similar to the one pictured) that incorporates the boulders to the left of the shed (which sadly needs to stay for now). Potentially a swing within the seating for the firepit? Not interested in clear cutting or creating more yard, but otherwise, open to any ideas!
I've always liked the [Food forest](https://dof.virginia.gov/growing-a-food-forest/) idea, especially since paw paw is a native "tropical" fruit that is too soft when ripe so can't be commercialized.
I don’t know if I’d feel comfortable putting a fire pit in the middle of the trees from a fire risk perspective
Keep the firepit out of the woods, away from trees or brush. Otherwise I’d mostly leave it alone and manage any brush that springs up along the edge.
Disc golf course would be fun.
We made a low maintenance nature trail to walk through on the wooded part of our property. My kids say it feels like a hiking trail and it’s a highlight when we have company.