I have many years of experience gardening a wooded property. Getting enough light through the tree canopy is often a challenging problem - it gets awfully expensive to have tree company come out and thin the canopy every few years. Besides, they trample the shade garden every time they come out. Thirty years ago, I diligently removed all the invasives in my 2 acre yard - most troublesome were the vines (honeysuckle, euonymus, English ivy, vinca, virginia creeper) and the dense eurasian honeysuckle. I planted shade loving perennials and a variety of interesting trees and shrubs. I even put in an extensive watering system. But over the years, the relentless invasives are winning back territory. Deer have become much more prevalent and damaging. And I just don't have the energy/stamina I had many years ago. As a result of all these factors, I now garden a much smaller area and the deeply wooded areas are being reclaimed by mother nature. So I guess my only advise is to try to be realistic about the effort which will be required to maintain a large area of woods. But I still love the wooded part of my garden, even though it's not the marvel it used to be.
