My side yards are rather steeply sloped and I have numerous trees. I recently bought a pallet of rocks
and want to make two beds with them that would be about 3-4 layers high in the front but sloping
back (up) to the current yard levels. Can I put these "in front" of a tree which would change the soil
lines and depth only on the downslope side without killing the trees? These two particular trees are the huge pines (sugar pines?).
Asking for advice on a flower bed
It's best to keep grade changes as far away from the tree as possible. And it doesn't sound like pines are especially fill-tolerant, according to this link:
http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1995/7-14-1995/prot.html
Linda, thanks so much for the link-very informative and I do agree that from what was shown
regarding pines that these beds should really be rethought and replaced. I appreciate the help.
So, could I maybe expand the half circles of the beds, lower the the height of the rocks so that
I am adding only 4-5 inches of topsoil mixed with mushroom compost leveling out near the trunk
at the original level?
Has any one tried changing a partial soil line with these trees??
Jan
This message was edited Apr 10, 2007 6:37 PM
When we built a home in Tomball, TX, we tried to "save" the towering pines on the lot. a few trees got some pavement- a driveway- over them. Others got a change of grade with some fill to make the slab higher and level out the property a bit. It took a year or so, but the trees got the pine-bark beetle. Not only did we lose most of the trees, but we also had to pay to fall and remove them. Then this adversely affected the plants below that were partially shaded. A big learning experience for me. As I understand, the pine bark beetle mainly attack stressed trees. So, if you really value the pines, then I would try and keep the change of grade far away from the trees, perhaps putting a wide ring around the tree, to preserve the original soil level. Perhaps someone else can give more input. I hope this helps a bit.
tosaho, aka SandiO
I had neighbors who added a bed around an existing pine. They didn't raise it by much, probably 4 to 6 inches of soild surrounded by two layers of landscape pavers. The tree was about 14" diameter and the bed was about 6 feet diameter encircling the tree. It took two years, but the tree died. You could tell it was stressed within a short time of the bed being added. I don't think pines take kindly to overplanting.
With some trees, any changes of soil level is too much. I don't have pines, but I do have live oaks. They object to level changes as little as an inch. Another thing to remember, trees can have roots out to a distance of 2 or 3 times the width of the crown. When you think about it, pine forests don't have many, if any, understory plants.
Many thanks to all. I'll relocate the (planned) beds and not take the chance of stressing or damaging the trees. Jan
I have a rather large island bed around two pines and I've had success with spring bulbs (freesias in particular) planted throughout, blue daze planted in a semi circle around each pine, durantas in the center of the bed and cosmos around each pine, above the blue daze. The cosmos seem to reseed themselves for summer color. I also plant zinnias in the summer and they seem happy there. I plant cypress vine to go around the pines themselves but have to be careful because they're pretty invasive....I'm out there every few days training them around the pines and out of the other plants. Have to pull a lot of the seedlings up too. The pines are about 15 years old and pretty large.