America’s Gardener

I’m in the Southeastern US, hardiness zone 7b/8a. I’ve been interested in permaculture for a while, but just starting to do more than read and watch videos about it. I have roughly 4 acres, most of which is a pine woodland recovering from having all of the old-growth trees blown over in a windstorm a couple of decades ago. Certain areas of the property where the pines haven’t been able to start reclaiming are currently overgrown with mostly non-native and invasive species like Chinese privet, mimosa, heavenly bamboo, and English ivy. I’m in the process of clearing out this periphery with the goal of replanting a forest garden using primarily species native to at least North America, if not my specific region. (Except for in specific contained garden beds, I don’t want to plant anything not native to North America unless I have a really good reason to do otherwise.)

I’m hoping to get most of the privet and other nasties cut out by the end of winter, though it’s slow going since I’m doing it by myself and by hand. To avoid all my efforts being undone as soon as the weather starts to warm up, I’m starting to collect plants now to keep in containers until I’ve cleared enough of an area to plant them.

So far, I’m looking at the following, either already in containers, soon to be propagated from seed or cuttings, or soon to be purchased from a local nursery :

• Trees: Pawpaw, peach, mayhaw, sassafras, and hazelnut trees; since I’m choosing to work around the pine woodland, the pines are basically going to be my tall tree layer, so the trees I’m picking to plant are all on the smaller side. I’m also going to plant honey locust and osage orange trees as a hedge around areas I want to either protect a bit from wildlife or else contain some livestock, but I absolutely don’t want to let these grow to full size.
• Bushes/shrubs: Blueberry, blackberry, spicebush, yaupon holly (because caffeine). While clearing the area, I found a few American holly plants which I’ll likely incorporate in the livestock hedge.
• Vines, herbaceous, and ground cover: Muscadine grapes, American wisteria, potato bean, Jerusalem artichoke, borage, yarrow, purple coneflower, lemon beebalm

I’m also planning on using some of the trees and brush I cut out to create some hugelkultur mounds for growing herbs and vegetables. (And yes, I do know not to use the privet for this, since it will just sprout new plants from the cuttings. All of the privet and most of the mimosa is going to be burned in a pit for biochar.)

So… does anyone have any tips or advice? Is there anything I’ve mentioned here that’s an obvious mistake? (And yeah, I know I might be making a mistake with the honey locust and osage orange hedge, but I want something that will grow fast, be livestock proof, and is nominally native, and those two seem to be the best fit.) Any plants I should add to my list? Any gaps I need to fill in my layers?