Thinking about "naturscaping" our ravine

Your basic city landscaping of a stormwater project--
between SW Bikeway and Glenway golf course

Here's a list of replacement trees and bushes for the Hillcrest-Upland greenway that Tim Kessenich and Mary Norton compiled.

The canopy trees and understory bushes/small trees were selected with the following criteria in mind: (1) native to this area, (2) grow well in a woods (shady) environment, and (3) most of them produce acorns or berries which attract birds and small mammals.

CANOPY TREES

• black cherry
• American hackberry
• American basswood (NOT little leaf linden)
• hickory - shagbark and yellow bud
• black walnut
• bur oak
• red oak
• northern white cedar/ arbor vitae - would be excellent along Midvale (which has more sun) as a visual and noise barrier 

UNDERSTORY

• juneberry (Amelanchier Sp.)
• elderberry (attracts 43 species of birds)
• viburnums such as nannyberry and highbush cranberry
• witch hazel
• choke cherry
• gray dogwood
• pagoda dogwood
• in the few sunny locations (Midvale, Owen Drive) staghorn sumac and red-osier dogwood

How many of each species should be ordered will depend partly on how many trees of each species are lost and on the landscaping company's recommendations.

(We'll need a landscaping company which specializes in woods settings.)

Thanks to Mary and Tim for their good work!

GROUND COVER

...The next step.  Any volunteers to donate extra woodland plants from your garden?  Several people have already volunteered ostrich ferns.

Planning and planting the woodland ground cover can be a fun event for the community.

Some soaker hoses connected to rain barrels will be needed to sustain woodland plants during dry spells.

The kind of plants that grow in ravines--
a secret location in the Baraboo Hills (Click on photo to enlarge)

PLANTS FOR POOLS AND CHANNEL

Neighbors have spoken--they want the stream to look as natural as possible (see previous post).  They want pools, rain gardens, maybe dams, natural field stones, and little or no ugly piles of riprap rubble.

A more natural channel will provide the opportunity for streamside vegetation--vegetation that can protect the banks and channel from erosion.

We need to research plants that might be suitable.  You often find willows in a sunny streamside location, but this will be shady.  Our ravine can test plantings to be used in other "green" stormwater projects.

Any ideas?  Please let me know--or post a reply below.

Riprap of natural boulders, corner of Cherokee and Yuma Drives.

Planting woodland plants to stabilize the ravine
during the "Weed Feed" in Glenwood Childrens Park.