I would love to own a good chunk of land, I would put in a full orchard of fruits and nuts (kind of reminds me of the guys on this forum). I would plant apple seeds, like Johnny did, to try to find some good cider apples in the genome. I would also do a grove of trees like Kentucky coffee tree, honey locust and whatever else I fancy.
Just that I would love to stick each and everyone of you in a hole in the ground... Wait, no that's not it.
I transplant them on my property. I have a bunch of seedlings that were too close the larger trees so I moved them.
We've planted black walnuts, catalpas, horse chestnut, silver & red & sugar maples, honey locusts, dogwood, Norway maple, spruce, pine and arborvitae. And cherry and birch and apricot. And ash.
I've only planted a few "trees" the past few years into my 25 acres of woods, mostly evergreens. But I have planted about 3,000 acorns (red & white), 1,000 black walnuts, and 500 chestnuts collected from prime local specimen trees (before the squirrels got them) the last two years. My woods are dominated by smooth and shag bark hickory, ironwood, cherry, beech, and dead/dying white ash. I'm cutting as per a management plan developed by my state forester, and seeding in the nuts in a dense grid as I pass. I realize only a small percentage of these will ever grow to mature trees, but it is the cheapest way for me to reforest my woods into a valuable "timber" lot, while retaining some of the other dominating species for biodiversity.
You would like my place, it came with cider apples (sweet with high tannin). I feed most of them to the goats and pony across the road though, as I cannot possibly eat that many. I have an 8 tree orchard here, with 2 pears, 2 apples, and 4 plums/prunes.
The Ky Coffeetree is on my list of trees to be planted, maybe next year. I was anxious to get some Tulip trees started, since they grow so quickly and that's what was mostly planted this year. I was going to order Coffeetree seedlings for next spring, but then the wife stepped in and said she wanted to plant Sassafras. And the main reason she wanted to plant them is because she likes saying the word...say it, Sassafras. Found an interesting piece on the battle to make the Coffeetree the state tree. http://www.netstate.com/states/symb/trees/ky_tulip_poplar.htm It lost to the Tulip tree, as it should have. Those Honey Locusts make great firewood, but they're a great sight in the spring, when they're in full bloom and their sweet fragrance permeates the air on a warm day.
Over the years a few thousand pine trees. Planted them to keep the sand dunes from blowing away. Planted some white cedar last year but most of them died from lack of rainfall. I was gone in June and no rain. They were pretty much toast when I got back. This year we planted a few more apple and peach trees. We cut off a bunch of pines almost 2 years ago and already there are many new cherry, oak, maple more pine and witch hazel coming up all on their own.
I have two acres that are mostly wooded, and I don't have to plant trees to fill any available space - plenty of trees come up on their own. Nevertheless I planted about 100 Shagbark Hickory nuts this fall because I don't have Shagbarks but like them. I really only have space for one or two, but I bet the squirrels will eat most of the nuts so I planted a whole lot more than I need. If the Shagbarks don't work out I'll settle for the White Oaks that sprout naturally.
I used to plant trees professionally. We did typical commercial/residential landscape stuff but we'd contract a few jobs for timber improvements and wetland reclamation stuff for the state...planting a lot of bare root seedlings in low lying areas. There really is no "best" tree to plant...just need to figure out what will do well in the soil you are planting in (soil type, drainage, etc) and if you want real future timber value or just good habitat. Most states offer bare root tree stock for dirt cheap as long as they are used non commercially. I got a bunch of norway spruce a couple years ago. Sadly they could not withstand last years major drought and I'll have to replant. My neighbor is a forester and has a lot of good information I've picked up over the years. He was recently walking my dad's property where there are a ton of 4-8" walnut trees growing. He asked if that area used to be a pasture. Indeed it was. He said that makes sense - squirrel would carry in nuts and drop them crossing the field and the cows would trample them into the ground effectively planting the nuts. I'm a big fan of black locust too. Fast growing. Damm near impossible to kill. Pretty blooms in the spring. Good firewood and fence posts.
Ill be planting 5 shagbarks I have in potters (assuming they sprout) And then I am going to clear a big plot of dead, dying, and ugly looking Ash and Maple and plant 12-15 fruit trees down by the stream Only part that wont get replanted is my top lot (making a usable yard) probably going to get 15-20 cord of white, rock and red oak out of that little piece and then Ill still have about 3 acres of woods.
Every year we try to plant at least 10-20 trees . As the soil is fairly poor ,we plant conifers , various types of Locust and Osage . In the few places where the soil is better , we've done various types of oak . Also did one sweet gum so that years from now someone can bless me when they are trying to split it .
I'm seeing the dominant tree's of Maple & cottonwood in my acreage. It just get flooded (river lands) every year, great soils, no Hickory's yet. Maybe a fluke Shag bark hickory tree 70+ years ago to handles these yearly floods. It's a tall/great tree by itself...Nuts are bored to my disappointment.
