If this is a picture of your yard? I'm very jelly!!! Our yard is definitely getting overgrown over the years as I squeeze in more native trees, native berry-bearing bushes and native flowers. We still have some lawn, and if I had my way, I'd just mow a path and let nature go wild, but then thistles, wild black raspberries and other thorny specimens would most likely thrive. Ouch! lol

Hi Therese! Yes, that's an area that was all turf at first, and then we made a vegetable garden, and then over the years trees started to come in. At first I would try to move the trees out of the vegetable garden, and at a certain point I realized: what am I doing? I have two acres to fill and I want lots more trees! So why don't I just let these grow and do a veg garden somewhere else later if I want to? So tulip trees and sassafras and hackberries all came in here on their own, and then I added ferns and sedges and sea oats, bluebells and other flowers to the understory. During the pandemic we dug out the little pond. :) It sounds like you are well on your way to a beautiful oasis too! And if I were you, I'd consider leaving the black raspberries, presuming they are native where you live? The reason I say this is that not only are they good forage for everyone from bees to birds to deer, but they also help protect saplings! So I've had trees volunteer among the black raspberries, and they don't need to be caged from browsing the way trees out in the open do. It's really fun and interesting to watch. Definitely they are thorny, but they're easy to pull where you don't want them. :)