introduction to new leaf forest
As far as I can remember from my childhood, I always dreamed of stepping out the back door of my parents’ house and immediately walking into a pristine and picturesque forest. What sights instead filled up my vision were those which are all too familiar in much of the rural and semi-rural midwest: neatly-mowed lawns, corn fields, and the occasional tree here and there.
Camping trips were among the most treasured highlights of my childhood summers. Once back at home from these trips, I often thought “I can’t move to the state parks, but what if I brought the state parks to me?”.
Since I’m now planting a new forest in the backyard of my childhood home, it’s safe to say this childhood vision persisted into my adult self. Nowadays I also find myself reacting to peoples’ desires to move to less geographically “boring” parts of the country by introducing the alternative of importing the essence of natural beauty into their own back yard by pursuing reforestation-centered landscaping instead.
My 1st attempt to plant anything on the site which would become New Leaf Forest, in 2015
My Hobby of Reforestation
In my last couple years of high school, I adopted a new hobby of learning about the kinds of trees that grew wild on our family’s farm and began to plant trees around our farm which were either transplanted wild from our farm’s woods or purchased from local nurseries. In the late spring of 2015, I transplanted an array of wild native Maple Trees into reused vegetable plant pots, and replanted them on a site which would later become the first section of New Leaf Forest. Due to me moving away from the family farm and being enrolled in college classes that year, these seedlings sadly fell out of my attention and eventually disappeared into a sea of noxious weeds that enveloped that site in the absence of my interference.
A common scene showing a hard day of digging up trash, scrap, and debris from this former dump site, late summer 2023
The Current Project Begins
Fast forward to 2022: I become reconnected with my hobby of reforestation and elevate this pastime into a career path of starting a plant nursery. As I started growing my plant nursery up from nothing, I simultaneously worked on this emerging reforestation project during my off-time. I pulled weeds, dug up years old trash from up to a foot underground, and planted approximately 15 different species of native trees and shrubs so far.
Present and Future
An Eastern White Pine gets a foot of new growth soon after being planted, late spring 2024
To put it bluntly, the current situation is not pretty. Despite my uplifting initial progress, much more back-breaking work awaits me, numerous tough decisions need to be made, and half the time it feels like this land, seemingly cursed with invasive weeds, is fighting back. Countless invasive herbaceous perennials are still thriving here. I’ve begun to step up my effort in sowing and planting native perennials to fill in that same space while the trees grow out, but they are still greatly outnumbered. Invasive Mulberry and Black Locust trees still need to be cut and killed, and each season I don’t finish them off will see new spiky locust seedlings springing up from underground. While much trash has been removed, I’ll admit I have avoided the most saturated areas to focus more on getting trees planted ASAP into sections that need less trash removal.
A common challenge is the painstaking unearthing and removal of waste long forgotten
Even still, I’m looking forward to the progress yet to be made on this adventure. Nothing’s more rewarding than getting a front-row seat view of your work growing on its own, year after year, until it blossoms into a natural marvel more complex and interlinked than you could ever engineer on your own. Tackling the sections with the most waste concentration will be among my biggest challenges. The heavy waste also instigates an inner debate: How much trash removal is satisfactory? Do I really need to consider combing through every shred of burnt plastic mixed in the soil, or is it wise to assert that my precious time is better spent on other strategies for this project?
This project will inevitably support and progress the nursery too, in addition to hopefully inspiring others in my community to embark on similar endeavors. New Leaf Forest is on the same property I aim to move my nursery to next month, so this opens up a convenient opportunity for nursery customers to observe a wild display of the same plants they’re buying. Once the project is nearing its maturity, it also becomes an advertising showcase to potential customers about the kinds of native forests they can plant on their property, or that they can hire the nursery to plant for them. Inevitably, I will learn new planting and foresting concepts and techniques from this adventure, which will sharpen me into an even more professional and versatile planter for customers. Examples of some exciting planting & ecological engineering techniques that I am experimenting with (or plan to experiment with soon) include the Miyawaki Method and Food Forest planting.
More to Come
As you probably figured out by now, this is my first blog post… like ever. So I applaud you if you actually took the time to read through my entire tree-hugger manifesto above. I apologize for any migraines my Nobel Prize-unworthy literary skills may have caused.
All jokes aside, more updates to this roller coaster of a project are sure to come as it progresses on, so check back here on the website or find us on social media!
Sean Nunemaker with New Leaf Nursery
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