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Return to the Alpines & Rock Gardens Forum | Post a Follow-Up

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Trees near a rock (alpine) garden

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Posted by taiga0 (My Page) on
Thu, Jun 7, 07 at 7:04

Hi, ive been planning eagerly a rock garden solely for low growing alpines in a pretty ideal bit of garden in a rasied south facing bed, if not for one thing.
Theres a couple of trees in the area, one at the top of the bed is a small (7 foot or so) monkey puzzle tree, and a couple of meters away is a fairly large hawthorn tree.... my question is how will alpines cope with these? Shade isnt really a problem, and branches which could drip on to the aplines can be cut back easily enough.
But how big a trouble to alpines are the roots of these kind of medium sized trees? Of coarse, the obvious solution is just to cut them down, but its a option id rather not take. Is their anything that can be done to stop the root growth after digging up the bed - is it even that big a problem ?
Perhaps im making a lot out of nothing, but thanks for any help.

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RE: Trees near a rock (alpine) garden

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Besides being mostly sun loving plants, lots of rock garden plants are low users of water and nutrients, so I would suggest you search for alpines that can tolerate a little shade and are drought tolerant and do well in poorer soils, since the trees will tend to steal nutrients. Or you could add cow manure or composted leaf mulch as needed.

http://home.howstuffworks.com/rock-garden-plants.htm

Here is a link that might be useful: Stepables

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RE: Trees near a rock (alpine) garden

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Believe it or not, tree roots can have its advantages. Soil dries quicker, and I'm guessing that will be an advantage in the UK. Even here in the USA, we have native plants that seem to always do better when grown in an area invaded by roots that are not their own. Of course, growth of the alpines will be slower, but that has the trade-off (usually) of more winter hardy plants. In the UK especially, winter wet is a serious problem, and any evergreen tree will help with that problem, helping to dry out the soil.

  
 

 

 


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