Planting under conifers

Most people have trouble with planting under these trees so I tried something out which I should have done years ago - progressive layering of nearby shrubs. It's hard for anything new to get established under a conifer as its dry and nutrient poor, so if you layer a nearby shrub toward the space, then layer again etc you get the effect of having a new shub growing from beneath the conifer but that is being fed from a few metres away You end up with a few 'loops' of shrub with the end one being under the tree. Just don't cut the layers off!

I now have a nive weigelia under my conifer in an area that was previously barren.