Hello! I am new and looking for advise

Juat registered this minute.

I was searching the internet for ideas for planting under conifers and came across this site.

I have eight big big ones and hubby won't chop them down. He says to turf underneath l think it won;t grow.

What do you guys think

Thank you!

 

actually advice would be better i guess

 

Hi Lucy,

You're right, you will struggle to grow turf under established trees, both because of the shade and because trees are estimated to use up about 30% of the available water (and therefore nutrients as well) in the soil profile.

On the other hand, you'll probably struggle to grow a lot of other things there for the same reasons. A cheap way to try turf would be to buy a bag of fescue based grass seed. It won't cost you too much, and you should have some seed left over for patching up any areas that don't take. Fescues are more shade tolerant than other grass species, and are also better at coping in drier soils, although you'll still have an uphill struggle.

If you try this, leave it until mid september or so, when we can be sure of plenty of rain. Failing that, the plant people here can probably suggest some better alternatives

 

Thank you Will, certainly one to think about.

I suppose l would get this Fescue grass seed at my local garden centre?

 

Conifers are greedy and thirsty besides evergreen shade, so I would go for the plants that do well in dry shade - hostas should do ok in addition to the ones previously suggested by others.

 

Hi Lucy
There are a couple of old posts that may be relevant to you on pages 28 & 17 of "General discussion" if you post up topics for the past year. Also try www.rhs.org.uk & try the plant selector for plants for dry shade.
I am in your part of the world & have sandy, free draining soil, (Yes, most of Notts has clay, but am on a strip of Bunter sandstone) so all of my garden is dry, in the shady bits I grow Euphorbia, Epimedium, Lamium, foxgloves, Liriope muscari, Clematis, Ivy, + many others - you could also try bergenia, Woodland bulbs such as bluebells, but if I were you, I'd go with Fran & work on the psychology to try & get them out! (another thing to consider is that they support very little wildlife) In this part of the country, because we are so dry (soil & rainfall levels), you will struggle to get prize specimens, if you have greedy, thirsty conifers, even the grass suggested by Will, will struggle (rain shadow?) - Get rid of the beasts if possible!!!
:D

[ 10. August 2005, 11:55 AM: Message edited by: Bayleaf ]

 

Hello thank you for your inspirations.

I was looking in a garden centre today and have am thinking of putting some weed blanket down, then nice stone chippings and ornamental grasses and rockery stones.

Would the plants you have suggested grow in this manner? It is usually awash with bluebells in spring, would they still be able to get through?


sorry about spellings! Can we have a spellchecker on the site....pretty please!

 

Hi Lucy
If you put a good quality weed membrane down, nothing will grow through it (only around it!), and you may struggle with grasses if it's very shady, although I have a Stipa arundinacea (Pheasants grass) which does quite well in shade, as does Liriope muscari - which isn't a true grass, but has grass like leaves & purple flowers in late summer, also Ophiopogon planiscapus (not a grass again, but grassy Black leaves & Pale lilac flowers) does ok with me. It may look a bit contrived or artificial to have a rockery/scree bed under big conifers though, as this type of habitat is usually out in the open (yet another excuse for getting rid of the conifers!!!!). Most of the plants people have suggested are from woodland(margin) or thereabouts, and may look odd in a rockery style setting, You could replace the stone with bark chippings for a more "together" look, and have larger pieces of wood (Conifer stumps/roots/logs?!) arranged within it. :D

 

Oh Bayleaf

That sounds lovely, maybe l could chop down the dreaded conifers to make logs and stumps.

Heres a pic of the conifers, I dunno why hubby likes them so much, he never does any gardening!

underneath the offending trees, please excuse the dogs, they seem to get in every pic

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/wendybrown/100_2033.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

 

Edited to make pic appear , Nathan.

[ 11. August 2005, 09:07 AM: Message edited by: Webmaster ]

 

Ask him and you may find a workaround - looking at the picture, your not likely get a lot growing in the ground underneath.

 

Hi Lucy's
My neighbours have Leylandia and Ive cursed them for 15 years. I cut them back to the trunks on my side of the fence(see photo) and this year they have cut two feet of tops but they are still too high. I have 15 rose bushes growing down my side of the fence and they struggle every yeahtt I have also tried to slice roots of at my side but they keep growing back. Take Bayleafs advice and *GET RID OF THEM" Quite excited about being able to post photos here's another one.
[img]http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b71/Larburnum/Cannons2003059.jpg

 

Hi
I did think about the compromise route for you - keep one or two, but they are so close together at the crowns, that where they touch & grow together will probably be all brown.
You could always "arrange" for them to "disappear" when someone isn't looking :D