non farmer trying to converting a never farmed field

[ScottyD'sdad]

You could plant "Mother Nature's way", just scatter the seeds over existing vegetation, and some will grow.

Ed

[Don McCombs]

Ed’s suggestion is a viable one, but you’ll get Mother Nature’s germination rate with that expensive seed, which is probably about 10%. If you do that, I would still do the soil sampling and cut as short as you can before seeding. Remove all the cuttings so you get better soil contact. I once did a small wildflower plot in unworked ground by cutting close, then tilling a couple of strips with a walk-behind tiller. Seeded the strips and was pretty successful. Natural reseeding will take over from there.
Don’t forget about native plants when you’re selecting seed mixes. You can get seeds for things like milkweed, asters and goldenrod free, by gathering them in the fall and spreading them in your plot. You don’t even need to separate the seed. Just cut the plants and throw them in the plot whole. The seeds will fall to the soil and the rest of the plant will rot over winter.

[inairam]

Don’t forget about native plants when you’re selecting seed mixes. You can get seeds for things like milkweed, asters and goldenrod free, by gathering them in the fall and spreading them in your plot. You don’t even need to separate the seed. Just cut the plants and throw them in the plot whole. The seeds will fall to the soil and the rest of the plant will rot over winter.

Don all of what were are going for is native to PA / Mid Atlantic region. The native trees to were hard to find there are 5 local retail nurseries. We had to go about a hour a way to find a nursery that specialized in native trees. That is why I want to use https://www.ernstseed.com/ they are in PA and specialize in natives. We have found most places have hybrids and nonnatives and they do not even talk about native options.