Planting Under Trees - Part 1: Hi...you're right, what <b>will</b> the neighbors think?! :-)

» Marge_Talt - Hi...you're right, what <b>will</b> the neighbors think?! :-)

Hi...you're right, what will the neighbors think?! :-)

Well, birch has a flat root system, so I think you'd need to be fairly careful how much you put on top of the root area. I don't see the advantage of a thicker layer of newspaper.

I think what I'd do is use a layer of woodchips about 6" thick at most - they are very porous and will let both air and water in. Think I might skip the newspaper, too - it does make a barrier of sorts and takes some time to completely disintegrate. If you go the woodchip route, in a few years there will be a lovely layer of dark humus there.

Straw will also decay, but it takes more than a summer for it to happen and it does tend to be full of seeds and sprout. If you can get woodchips or bagged mulch, I'd use that instead.

You'd probably need to actually dig the bulbs into the underlying soil; not just into a layer of organic material , but the organic material would count as soil above the bulbs (if it's mulch or woodchips), so you wouldn't need to dig into the actual soil a full six inches or so. And, if you use some of the minor bulbs, they don't have to be planted deeply at all and would naturalize there for you. They say 4 inches, but I've just poked them in an inch or two and they do fine. I'm a geat fan of the minor bulbs!

Marge

Gardening in
Shade

-- posted by Marge_Talt