Planting other things in tree wells?

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Permalink Reply by grrlscout on February 1, 2010 at 12:06pm

I don't have any solid answers for you. But I did something similar. However, I planted around a mature tree.

My goal was mostly to retain the irrigation water, because before, it was mostly watering rocks and weeds.

Then I had a second purpose, in that I wanted to plant fennel, but I guess it doesn't get along well with other plants. I also wanted to plant some mints and flowers, but didn't have room in my veggie garden.

So now, under the orange / tangerine tree, I had fennel, dill, lemon balm, cat nip, nasturtiums, and mexican mint marigolds:

As an unexpected benefit, the oranges and tangerines did REALLY well this year, thanks to the improved soil at the base. I got tons of both, and the size and quality were way better than in previous years.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Byers on February 2, 2010 at 9:02am

Planting other plants around the base of your grape or trees will not cause any problems as long as you do not get carried away by digging too deeply and damaging the roots of the tree/grape already there.
If you plant sunflowers or anything else for the birds it will not really encourage them any more than they are already. Birds have no trouble finding what you do not want them to eat! :) I would suggest planting stuff you like and the birds like and use bird netting to keep them away from what you do not want them to eat. This is the only effective method I have found to use, they still get some of my stuff but not so much I get upset with them.

I love watching they harvest seeds off of plants I grew for the birds.

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