How To Create A Flower Garden In The Shade Of Trees

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

The vast majority of summer cottages and garden plots have a very limited area, amounting to only 4-10 acres. If its owner prefers a garden and a vegetable garden, then there is often a problem with the placement of flower beds and various ornamental plants in the country.

How to be? Is there a way out of this situation? Of course there is. I will share my experience and the experience of one of my site neighbors.

We place flowers and ornamental plants in the near-stem circles of fruit trees, without any damage to fruit crops. True, here it is necessary to exclude those trees that have not yet reached four years and are kept under clean fallow.

Cultivation of annual flowers under the crowns of a garden is especially good; ground cover crops and low perennials with a superficial root system feel comfortable there.

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The most suitable plants for such a garden are a variety of stonecrops - white, thick-leaved and others. Small-bulbous flowers feel and look great under the crowns of trees: hyacinths, crocuses, muscari, daffodils and even tulips. Viola (pansies) and biennial pyrethrum with flowers resembling small-flowered chrysanthemums are good neighbors for these flowers.

Perennials look very impressive under the crowns, for which partial shade and even shade are preferable to illuminated places: aquilegia, periwinkle, brunera, iris, marigold, daffodil, primrose and others.

A wide variety of flower beds can be placed under the crowns of old trees, the roots of which go deep into the soil, and in some cases it is possible to create even miniature flower beds of continuous flowering under each of the trees, and perennials feel great under these conditions. They are durable, hardy, very decorative and do not require much maintenance.

For example, gardener Elena Kuzmina has a primrose, crocus and iris growing and blooming under the crown of an old rooted plum for many years, and in the center of such a flower garden there is a poultry garden, a dicentra and several bushes of phlox paniculata. Such a set of plants in the near-stem circle ensures flowering from April (crocuses) to October (phlox), and in the case when phloxes outgrow, they cut off several stems into bouquets, and new shoots grow from the axillary buds, blooming at the end of summer and continuing delight the gardener until frost.

In my garden, under a very old apple tree, several bushes of raspberries grow very successfully, which produce berries that are almost twice as large as in an ordinary raspberry tree.

At one of the gardeners I happened to get acquainted with an apple tree, under which doronicum grows and blooms in May-June, later tulips bloom, then peonies, and all these beautifully flowering plants along the edges of the flower bed are trimmed with viola. The flower garden, therefore, pleases the eyes from spring to frost.

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Under another apple tree, tulips first bloom freely, and then in the summer they are replaced by calendula and viola. Under one of the old sea buckthorns I have very successfully placed peonies, and under the other - several bushes of asters with a spherical crown, blooming in July-August with lilac-pink inflorescences-baskets.

I want to note that such asters, without taking up much space, create a true symphony of beauty and comfort for some gardeners in small flower beds. I also know that in some areas summer residents and gardeners in near-trunk circles successfully grow rhubarb, sorrel and other vegetable plants.

Caring for plantings in near-trunk circles is quite simple.

In early spring, as a rule, nitrogen fertilization is given by spraying urea or nitrate over the entire near-stem circle at the rate of 1 tablespoon of fertilizer per 1 m². Then, in June-July, the plants are fed twice more, for example, Kemira flower or universal.

Spreading the entire garden area with fertilizers, as recommended by some authors, is unjustified, since up to 30% of the garden area is occupied by passages and paths that do not require nutrition.

In dry weather, all plants in the near-stem circles must be watered.

At the beginning of autumn, you need to clear the near-trunk circle of weeds, mulch the ground with compost, peat or rotted sawdust with a layer of about 5-6 cm. …

In conclusion, I want to make three clarifications:

- if in the lower zone of the tree there are branches that do not give a crop or are withered, then they should be cut off so that they do not interfere with the plants planted in the circle;

- if the apple trees grow on low-growing rootstocks, then the trunk circles with a diameter of about 1 m should be left unoccupied;

- before planting plants in the near-stem circle, it is very useful to study their features: is this plant suitable for growing in the shade and partial shade, and also to consult on this issue with more experienced gardeners.

Based on my own experience and the experience of other summer residents and gardeners, I can conclude that after planting plants in tree-trunk circles, the garden is transformed, giving the site beauty and comfort. At the same time, land savings are achieved by 20-30%, and all this is beneficial for the site and a noticeable improvement in its design.