Re: [SG] Maples in yard

As others have said, the primary problem with maples and other surface
rooted trees is that they suck up all available water and nutrients, plus
they web the soil with their roots...and, of course, they cast shade, but
that's not really a problem for us shade type gardeners....it's welcomed.

I've had a pretty successful border under an unknown maple accompanied by a
black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) and a dogwood (Cornus florida) for many
years now.  In it are a variety of plants I discussed pretty thoroughly in
my series of articles "Planting Under Trees" on my topic on Suite101, so I
won't list them all here as you can read about them if you're interested -
was the first part of the series as I remember.  URL to welcome page is in
my SIG and you can find the articles from there - if they're not still
listed they will be in "more articles".

Anyway, most (but not all) of this border was constructed by initially
trying to turn the soil, removing surface roots as possible and amending it
- probably used compost and other organic stuff; been so long now, I really
forget.  Then, I mixed a relatively light mix of compost and probably
whatever I had on hand at the time...now, I tend to use rotted wood chips,
compost and rotted leaf mold with some bagged pine bark fines for this mix
with a dollop of native clay... and dumped it on top of the more or less
turned soil to make a slightly raised bed.  Into this lovely stuff, I
planted my perennials; this bit of the border has no woodies in it.  The
mix gives my plants a chance to get established before the tree roots grow
into it - and they will do this.  By the end of the first season of
planting, they will have made substantial inroads, but the perennials will
have become established.

About every 5 to 8 years, or whenever I'm changing the planting or dividing
or adding plants, I dig up a swath of the border and remove whatever
surface roots I can get my hands on and top up with new mix and replant.
This "mix" will subside substantially in not too many years so the area
will not be raised anymore.

I do not add this mix close to the tree trunks because you don't want to
add any organic material right around a tree's base - it can cause rot in
the tree.  I water this border, as well as all my borders under mature
trees, in summer when there isn't rain or when it's so bloody hot you can
hear those trees sucking water out of the ground.

In the area immediately around the maple I've probably got about a dozen
species of plants, and several cultivars of some,  not counting hardy bulbs
- all doing quite well as far as I can tell.

So, moral of the story  is that you can plant under these trees, but it
takes more effort than planting somewhere that's not ordinarily full of
roots would.

When adding "good mix" directly under trees, you don't want to make it much
more than 6 or 8 inches deep and it's best if you don't completely encircle
the tree - at least not at first.  You don't want to just dump on a pile of
heavy clay soil because you might end up killing even those greedy, weedy
maples by altering the air flow and drainage through the soil.  Some trees,
like oaks, are rather sensitive to grade changes over their roots, so you
need to be thoughtful about how you go about it, and you need to identify
the type of root system the tree you're contemplating planting under has.

I have not noticed the maple objecting to root pruning every few years -
seems to me it's so overjoyed to find a nice new rich layer of goodies to
conquer that it doesn't mind a bit.

Oh, and I very seldom "feed" these borders.  They are quite lucky if they
get a top dressing of compost every few years and a very rare sprinkling of
super phosphate or whatever I have in my hand.  In spring, I rake off the
worst of the fallen leaves, leaving the layer that's started to rot.  When
I plant something new, I mulch it with rotted wood chips or bagged fine
chip pine bark.  Plants grow so thickly that there isn't much room to mulch
after that and it is entirely too tedious to do, so I don't.

There are also plants that will flourish without much amendment of soil.
Wild ginger, (Asarum canadense) has made quite a nice groundcover between
the maple and black locust in really fairly rotten clay that never had
anything done to it - growing up to the tree trunks on each side.
Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides), which is tough as nails, also
grows well in the unamended soil directly at the base of the black locust
and the dogwood.   Goatsbeard (Aruncus dioicus) has also been growing right
next to the base of the maple in unamended soil, tho' it is likely I tried
to scratch a bit of compost in when they were planted.  They do not get as
tall as they might in better soil, but they've been growing and blooming
there for around 15 years - seeding madly into the paving cracks in the
adjacent circle garden, but never into the border bed.

And, there are several really tough and fairly rampant ground cover plants
that will grow just about anywhere, including under maples.   Anything,
however, will require extra water in hot, dry summertime.

Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
Editor:  Gardening in Shade
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> In a message dated 2/9/99 8:11:43 PM Central Standard Time,
> marimuse@EARTHLINK.NET writes:
>
> << but I seem to recall that
>  there are some problems gardening around maples.....any thoughts on
>  this?  Thanks.
>   >>
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