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bump2sufflue Port Orchard, WA Jul 30, 2007

i live in washington state......i have an island with 5 or 6 fir trees in it and they drop about a million pine cones a year....i have just cleaned everything up and i would like to know what i should do to prepare the area for planting some annuals and perrenials for a carpet like effect ?

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WeeNel Ayrshire Scotland, United Kingdom Jul 31, 2007

Hi Bump, your pine trees might be a sign that the cones and the needles are making the soil quite acidic, so do a soil test first to find out what soil you have, you can buy a very simple cheep soil testing kit from the garden center with instructions, also, your soil may be quite dry, there as the 5 pine trees which will be taking up all the moisture within the soil, so you will need to add lots of manure/compost to rectify that, I would go for spring flowering bulbs like Daff's etc to give you early colour, but there are loads of other early bulbs you could go for depending on your soil, instead of trying to grow annials and perenials which would be quite hard due to the shade of your trees, if your soil is a bit acidic, I would try looking for some nice coloured Rhododendrons that give colour when in flower, but the foliage stays green all year round, there are small ones and med to large, Camelias, are good and you can get some perfumed ones now, Magnolias are also good in an acidic area, they need no special care exept to deadhead the flowers as they fade to send out new growth and make the flower buds for the following year, dont cut the dead flowers off, just snap ONLY the flowers as the new buds are already being formed as the old ones fade, if you have a neutral soil, then your choise will be larger but then you need to keep in mind the shade as lots of flowers wont give the effect you wish, Good luck, Weenel.

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