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Does anyone else garden under trees?
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Posted by JustJoeyGirl z5 NY (My Page) on Wed, Jun 29, 05 at 23:46
| I seem to have a knack for gardening where I shouldn't. When we bought our house, there was an area along the driveway lined with large trees. The grass wouldn't grow there and it would be a dust cloud each time we mowed. Moss would occasionaly grow there where the edges met 'real grass'. The gravel driveway seemed to have been shoveled into that area each winter prior to our arrival. So what do I do being a new homeowner and new gardener? Try to plant a garden there....geez, Louise, you'd think I'd figure out that grass isn't growing there, that a garden sure isn't going to be happy there. The area is filled with roots from the trees, hard, dry compacted soil that you can barely get a trowel into. Know what I planted there the first year? Well, how's astilbe for starters? Ha ha ha, now I laugh because I know better, but it took many years since to know that was a deadly error and a waste of beautiful plantlife. I persevered, and I still have a garden under the oaks and one really pain in the neck hickory ( I think) with the chains of pollen coated things that fall into the garden each spring. Anyway, now I try to gear some of the plants to the conditions there, and I try to improve them as much as I can..compost mostly in the spring, mulch and I water it a lot more...no water gets through that thick canopy of leaves.
I also didn't learn soon enough. I started a 'White (moon) garden....you guessed it, under the canopy of high trees...which the moonlight doesn't touch all the time, sometimes yes, but most times no. I do like the garden and at dawn and dusk it is magical to me..but another under tree experience that 'live and learn' falls under.
Slowly I rescue some of the plants that have been friendly to me and lived all these years under the trees. For instance I have one coneflower that is about 8 years old, and it is so small and puts up one or two flower stalks a year..but it lives and I cherish those flowers. I think of moving it, but it has proven strong over the years, so I leave it to be the strong little coneflower that it is, and I appreciate the two flowers a year. (unfortunately so does the local ground hog..but I spray now, and that issue is mostly under control....dare I say it, lest he's out there chomping as I type.)
Well, anyway, this got long, but I was wondering if any of you garden under the canopy of trees, your experiences with it, and suggestions for tough, but beautiful plants to continue the insanity.. Thanks for your thoughts....JoAnn
ps...I do have gardens that are out in the open now..amazing how well they grow.
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Does anyone else garden under trees?
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| Oh i can relate! It looks like you are doing a great job with what you are trying, and learning as you go, anyway. I finally took down a tree that drove me crazy this year. It was a mimosa...the world's messiest tree. It was overhanging my perennial bed, and 4 times a year it had a variety of messy litter it would shed all over the bed. It has these cool pink pom pom puff balls, but mine was so tall that you couldn't really appreciate them on the tree (35 feet up), but you sure saw them all over the garden as they turned into mushy brown blobs everywhere. I also have a garden that is backed by a mountain laurel grove and THAT has a big norway maple behind it. So LOTS of root competition. Things do okay, but definitely don't thrive there. Anyway, good luck! |
RE: Does anyone else garden under trees?
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| For us the lilies and day lilies do well under the trees. The iris, ajuga. Seasonal bulbs and plants: mertensia, bloodroot, Solomon's seal, crocus, lily of the valley. Later, wood betony, coral bells, columbine, sedums. We don't dig under the trees. We do light mulching. Shrubs in the shadier area include small hollies, and box. Pots of heliotrope can add color in later summer. EP |
RE: Does anyone else garden under trees?
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| I'll second the day lilies and columbine and most of the time I get foxglove to produce nice flowers and I get a seasonal bleeding heart - grows great in spring and flowers then disappears. On the more medicinal side, both my goldenseal and sweet woodruff love it under the trees It's my first year trying some brown mustard as an annual under the trees and they seem to be flowering very well and I want to try lady's slipper if I can get a nice damp spot under all the oaks, hickory and pine in the yard. Oh, and another one that has worked well from the bulb side has been giant Colchicum - fall flowering and looks like a huge crocus. |
RE: Does anyone else garden under trees?
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| The only things I have luck with in the dry soil under trees are flowering weeds (wildflowers to me, LOL). No one's allowed to mow them. |
RE: Does anyone else garden under trees?
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| Susan, funny you say that..some very pretty 'weeds' have come to that border, I keep the ones I like. I look forward to them. A very tiny five petaled magenta dianthus looking 'weed', plus a few more. They are wild flowers. |
RE: Does anyone else garden under trees?
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| JoAnn, I don't know if you are thinking about annuals but I have a huge pine tree in front of my house. I have been planting impatiens there every year and they look beautiful all around it. Since they don't like the sun, it provides perfect shade for them, the New Guinea impatiens look really lovely. Good luck! |
RE: Does anyone else garden under trees?
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| Giniene, thanks..I acutally have impatiens in there..they do tend to flop, I have to constantly water them..not enough moisture there for them in most parts of that border..I have lots of annuals in there though. Mostly snapdragons, petunias, some verbena,pansies, cosmos, marigolds, portulaca does well there..alyssum, vinca...I have some nicotiana and lantana...it is just very hard and dry soil..mulch helps. Thanks the New Guinea impatiens would do better you are right, I hadn't thought of them for there. JoAnn... :) |
RE: Does anyone else garden under trees?
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| Joey, I have that dianthus weed this year, too. A gorgeous specimen is being cultivated in full sun in my perennial bed. I hope I don't regret it. I wonder what it is. |
RE: Does anyone else garden under trees?
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| I don't find it invasive in my border. A few plants here and there, I've had it for several years now...kinda wish there were more. I have rose campion there too, forgot, they do ok there..reseed here and there..always a surprise. |
RE: Does anyone else garden under trees?
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| It's dianthus armeria, Deptford pink. I looked it up. |
RE: Does anyone else garden under trees?
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| Cool, thanks...now it has a name! |
RE: Does anyone else garden under trees?
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Some people only garden under trees. Check out the gardening in shade forum. Some of the prettiest plants grow in shade:
Trillium
Astilbe
Hosta
Fox Glove
Bleeding heart
Bugbane
Monks Hood
Iris Cristata
Coral Bells
Hepatica
Blood Root
Toad Lily -Tricyrtis
Ferns-Lots of pretty ferns
Arisaema
Veronica
Ginger
etc. Check the shade section or any nursery |
RE: Does anyone else garden under trees?
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| I kinda got the shade thing down, believe it or not, most of that garden gets a lot of direct sun in the late morning, early afternoon and then again some in the late afternoon from the other direction. My biggest problem under the trees is the MOISTURE content and the hard dry soil. I need to find plants that can tolerate really dry conditions as well as some shade. I have some daylilies and just started adding some epimedium, so far, so good. One area gets less sun and has more moisture and it does well, I have fern and hosta, huchera, tiarella, and some others that do well there. My biggest problem is the area that is dry. Thanks for the direction to the shade forum, I hadn't thought of that as a reference. I guess because my garden does get a bit of sun, and it is dry that I didn't associate the two. I know a lot of the plants you list above like it on the moist side...I tried astilbe when I first started, not the right site at all. Now I am more versed in plants and their requirements and try to match the site to the plant as best I can. Thanks JoAnn |
RE: Does anyone else garden under trees?
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| One thing I have noticed about planting under Pine trees, in particular, is that slugs don't bother the hostas at all. It must be that the pine needles are detrimental to their slimy little bodies. |
RE: Does anyone else garden under trees?
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| Depends on which trees. Maples really suck up all the nutrients and moisture but oaks, apples and such are not as shallow rooted. Lily of the valley does fine under maples and so does columbine. In areas where the shade isn't so dry, astilbes, brunnera, violets, hosta, epimediums, hellebores, heuchera and pulmonaria. Pulmonarias are my most favorite but I'm also growing rodgersia, ferns, tricytris, double bloodroot, deianthe.... Under a twisted hazel I have cyclamen hederifolia which likes it dry and the hazel sure keeps it that way. |
RE: Does anyone else garden under trees?
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| Anyone had any luck with Merrybells (Uvularia grandiflora) in shade? |
RE: Does anyone else garden under trees?
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| Funny you should mention that, two showed up this year on their own in the very garden I am talking about. I know my neighbor has them all over in shade at her place. Wildlife must have brought seeds or something this way. I left them this year. I dont' know much about them...but the soil there isn't very moist, so I doubt they will become a problem. |
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