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| I have a giant oak tree that produces LOTS of leaves. I really wasn't sure what to do with them. The tree is near a long roadside embankment. When I moved here in April the whole thing was Lawn...a real chore to mow on this embankment. In fact I really don't believe in giant lawns...they are just fake. I would much rather have natural-looking ground covers.
So I put up a few rolls of short fencing wire (1') and enclosed the embankment...then I piled all the autumn leaves into the enclosure. My hope is that all those autumn leaves will choke out the lawn underneath, and then I can plant shrubs & ground cover. I also thought about getting one of those long rolls of border rubber, and enclosing a large circular space under the tree. Just keep the leaves there until gradually, lawn will be replaced by natural leaf litter that belongs under trees. My question is whether this would work and does anyone have experience with mulch as a lawn alternative. Zone 6, southeast PA. |
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| I inherited property that was extensive lawns, some of it on difficult slopes - lots of oak, wild cherry, and pine trees. I decided to leave much of it unmowed, so the oak and cherry leaves covered one area and pine needles another. The lawn quickly receded to be followed by many, many volunteers from the surrounding woods. Little trees, asters, goldenrods, (and poison ivy), and other interesting seedlings. This is fine with me, I think lawns are boring and not worth the upkeep except for a few areas where I want to walk or want to see the green frame to the garden. Birds really appreciate the diversity, too. I'm in zone 6b, southeast MA. It's certainly doable; you should just be aware that leaf litter will not remain as a permanent mulch. Seeds are always arriving and will grow if given a chance. Mowing the lawn kills off seedlings; they'll sprout in your leaf litter. Long live the forest! Claire |
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| This is a shot from last May of the area under a white pine that used to be lawn. I planted the Spanish bluebell bulbs but all the other vegetation is self-sown. I've also added ferns and hostas not shown here. White wood asters cover the area in the fall.
You'll either have to continually weed the leaf litter or redefine what you consider a weed. Wildflowers anyone? Claire |
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- Posted by mad_gallica Z5 Eastern NY (My Page) on Sun, Nov 13, 11 at 12:39
| I'm sure that if you drive around with your eyes open, you'll pass places that had been cleared in the past, then abandoned. There will be a lot of multiflora rose, sumac, wineberries, poison ivy, Virginia creeper, growing among some trees. Thats's what you get if you just let things go. If you want something like groundcover growing amid ornamental shrubs, it requires weeding. A lot of weeding. It will be a lot more time consuming than the lawn. Now something else to keep in mind is that the highway department may mow along roadsides to keep sightlines clear. |
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- Posted by woodswalker88 none (My Page) on Sun, Nov 13, 11 at 23:16
| My friend, a gardener, thinks that a heavy leaf cover will lead to mold/rot underneath, which could be bad for the trees/shrubs within the area. Any comments on that? What do people here do with leaves? At my old house I had a huge leaf/brush pile way in back. like 30 years worth. I think Claire's pic is way cooler than lawn. Once I planted lots of groundcover I don't know if that would be more time consuming than lawn. Bear in mind if I left it as lawn, I would have to continually be mowing around all these obstacles: bushes, trees. Once every week or 2 weeks from April thru October. I really believe ground cover would be less labor intensive than that. (and it would look nicer.) Of course, being new to this property I can't say for sure. |
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- Posted by novascapes none (My Page) on Mon, Nov 14, 11 at 4:51
| "My friend, a gardener, thinks that a heavy leaf cover will lead to mold/rot underneath, which could be bad for the trees/shrubs within the area. Any comments on that? " Even if one was not a gardener, common sense should tell you that in nature leaf mold is what the trees want. |
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- Posted by bayoufilter 9a HouTX (My Page) on Fri, Nov 18, 11 at 9:20
| Well moist mulch running very far up the trunk, touching it, will foster conditions for bark-eaters (both insect and fungus-y). But if you leave (no pun intended) just a few inches open around each tree trunk that you care about, yes a nice thick blanket of naturally decomposing material over the roots is just what Mother Nature ordered. Keeps the soil cool. Makes more soil. Worm-Friendly Zone. Absorbs nitrogen from the air to be released later. Fosters wood-munchers and carbon-eaters (here, that's a good thing. See, it's all about context!) to chew on those hard-to-digest oak leaves. SO: "Mulch Volcano" heaped around a trunk = Bad. I still see a lot of these being made on purpose. "shudder> "Mulch Do-nut" = Good. Keep the trunk dry but root-zone cool and shady. Extend for yards, or miles! Hope I don't ramble on too much. Rick |
Here is a link that might be useful: But If You Like My Ramblings Here's More
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- Posted by toxcrusadr (My Page) on Fri, Nov 18, 11 at 10:45
| To sum up some of the predictions: Landscape with shrubs, flowers etc. ---> maintenance required Cover with leaves, no maintenance --> bad weeds move in It seems to me the answer is a semi-wild garden of Natives. You'd only have to fight the invasives for a while until they get going, and they won't require much if any help after that. |
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| A "semi-wild garden of Natives" is certainly one way to go, but there are "good weeds" that will move in that are not invasive, and maybe you'll want to keep. It's really a question of how much you want to control that garden (which means more maintenance) and how much disorder you (or your family and neighbors) are willing to accept. I happen to have a high tolerance for disorder and a low need for control, so what I've been doing is planting some non-native but compatible plants in with the wild stuff, trying to give some spots of order, while letting the main field evolve however it happens. I still pull out wild plants I deem are "bad weeds", but leave others to multiply. The pic I showed was nice and neat, but that was in May. Most of those neat little green plants are white wood asters which are natives that are OK with shade. White wood asters colonize everything around here. This is white wood aster in September, not in that area but picture the first pic filled with these asters. This morning the same area shows the aster fluffy seed heads all over, with some ferns and a few other non-natives (epimediums, euonymus). I'll cut the seed stalks down sometime soon. There are many hostas in there but the foliage is gone now. That's a big forsythia shoving its cane in my face.
In July a few years ago the hostas were crowded with jewelweed which later gets pretty little orange flowers. Most of the non-hosta leaves here are jewelweeds. I really liked the first jewelweeds, but the next hundred were less appealing so now I pull them all out, leaving the asters (and the hostas). They're easy to pull out and much fewer now since I don't let them go to seed.
It's a balance now where I remove what I don't want but leave leeway to see what else is going to appear. This garden is very low-maintenance now, and fits in my rural area. I'm just trying to show you one way of handling this kind of area - your taste and local ecology will vary. Claire |
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