Wildlife Shrubs

[g squared 23]

My place has a decent number of oaks and is primarily wooded, so the lowest holes in my bucket in the past were browse and bedding. The chainsaw has helped, but I’ve added quite a few shrubs over the years. I have to cut out invasives, and immediately replace with natives. So far I’m not sure how big of an impact I’ve made. Yet. Everything around me is open oak ridges, so if I want my square on the checkerboard to be unique, I need to provide something the deer can browse from April to November. So I’ve got 125 shrubs ordered for the spring: chokecherry, red osier dogwood, arrowwood, hazelnut and nannyberry. Plum has grown great, along with roughleaf dogwood.

 

[bowhunter14]

I have a question for everyone who plants shrubs.. I have a 2 acre clover plot that is in the shape of a square, I have a lot of night activity on the plot and I am trying to improve cover around the plot while also giving the deer some new browse. Would it be beneficial to plant a row of shrubs down the middle of the plot with openings in bow range? I want to split the plot in half basically. I was thinking of using hazelnut shrubs for this as I don't want to battle a thicket forming shrub. Then I was planning on throwing some other shrubs around the edge to add some more cover/ browse

 

[TreeDaddy]

I have a question for everyone who plants shrubs.. I have a 2 acre clover plot that is in the shape of a square, I have a lot of night activity on the plot and I am trying to improve cover around the plot while also giving the deer some new browse. Would it be beneficial to plant a row of shrubs down the middle of the plot with openings in bow range? I want to split the plot in half basically. I was thinking of using hazelnut shrubs for this as I don't want to battle a thicket forming shrub. Then I was planning on throwing some other shrubs around the edge to add some more cover/ browse

I have used virginia pines to divide plots and been happy with result

Have also used chickasaw/sand hill plums although they do form thickets

Others here have written about Miscanthus to divide plots

bill

 

[willy]

Dividing and surrounding plots with screening makes daylight use almost a given. Whether it be miscanthus or shrubs they'll both work. Keep in mind if your going to use herbicides so that one has a plan to use without killing the other stuff.

 

[Native Hunter]

I'm currently planting a shrub as an experiment that is considered an invasive species. No, it's not autumn olive or bush honeysuckle. I'm not afraid to plant it, and I am not worried at all about it getting out of hand. I've been studying and watching this now for several years, and the only place it is an invasive species is places where deer aren't at or are seldom at (in cities, yards, edges of highways, etc.). If deer are present and can get to it, they eat it to the ground and kill it before it ever has a chance to establish. I'm experimenting to see if I can get it established with a cage and then remove the cage at some point down the road. I should have some results in about 3 years.

 

[KSQ2]

How wet of soil can elderberry tolerate? Will it survive an area that will be standing water in the wetter portions of the year?

 

[Native Hunter]

How wet of soil can elderberry tolerate? Will it survive an area that will be standing water in the wetter portions of the year?

Not likely. That's not where you find it naturally growing. It will be more toward the edge of such places. Red Osier Dogwood will take quite a bit of standing water for a while and do well.

 

[KSQ2]

Not likely. That's not where you find it naturally growing. It will be more toward the edge of such places. Red Osier Dogwood will take quite a bit of standing water for a while and do well.

Ok thanks, we have places it will grow well, I just wanted to make sure it's in the optimal location, both for hiding from deer for a while and growth.

 

[Native Hunter]

Ok thanks, we have places it will grow well, I just wanted to make sure it's in the optimal location, both for hiding from deer for a while and growth.

I’ve also had it pop up at the edge of ditches a few inches above where the water can get up to.

 

[buckdeer1]

I divided my plot with a 6ft wide strip of switch,It doesn't keep every deer from walking through but most walk around the end of it.Another area I do I plant milo real thick so they don't feed on it and they walk through a gap most of the time.But I plant a ton of sand hill plums and they just started the process of making them the State fruit of Kansas

 

[g squared 23]

I love this thread. Put in 85 shrubs yesterday. New to me were chokecherry, nannyberry and arrowwood. 40 more to go tomorrow, and then 50 over the weekend.

Here is some arrowwood with weed mats within an enclosure. You can see some dogwood at the other end that were planted and matted last year, the grass and weeds still found any gaps. The 2nd year they tend to outgrow the competition.


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[buckdeer1]

I like fragrant sumac and sand hill plum,Yours should do great

 

[g squared 23]

40 more today, hazelnut and ROD. Ran out of fencing and weed mats, more next week.

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[bowhunter14]

Why plant them in clusters like that @g squared 23? Any certain reasoning on that?

 

[g squared 23]

Why plant them in clusters like that @g squared 23? Any certain reasoning on that?

I’m generally planting these along field edges in areas that will get enough sun but not take up food plot space, therefore an enclosure is just much easier and more efficient than making individual cages. Fewer T posts needed as well.

I also want to them tight enough that they will form a thicket, that will serve as a browse source for deer but also potentially as a “covey headquarters” to encourage quail to safely use the property. The shrubs will create a veritable fort with berries that will drop, shading the ground enough to have an easy way to walk through and look for bugs and seeds while enjoying the overhead protection from raptors.

It’s a long term project, it has literally yet to bear any fruit, but I hope to have enough safe zones that the little guys can safely make it from one side of the property to the other without getting picked off. And if it all fails tremendously, I’ll have a large diversity of browse that can hopefully address the dietary needs of the deer in the area. Browse is one of the lowest holes in my bucket. Acorn producing trees are great, but I’m surrounded with oak ridges as far as you can see, I’m wanting to create something different.

http://conservationtoolbox.org/wp-c.../Establishing-and-Managing-Shrub-Thickets.pdf


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