Beginner Gardening: Planting under pine trees, 1 by andycdn

andycdn wrote:
Len, you're right about the pines taking up lots of moisture. They have very shallow root systems for such tall trees, as I discovered when one was blown over in very high winds. The seventy-foot tree had a root system only 3-4 ft deep, about 6 ft in diameter, very dense. I expect there were some tap-roots that went down further but were snapped off. Being so close to the surface, the mass of roots would really suck up the moisture. Our spot is on a point of land on a lake, so I guess they tap into that source in the ground. The native plants I mentioned grow only in the places closest to the lakeshore, especially in the low areas that are quite swampy in the spring.