In the background of some of my garden pictures you will probably notice a picturesque chain link fence. No one really loves them, and I’m usually a girl who prefers more privacy, but in this case, it has turned out to be a blessing, because we are meeting lots of neighbors when we’re out working or hanging out in the backyard.
After putting in a good hour or two of work digging up some of our resurrection lily bulbs, we found ourselves chatting with our neighbor directly behind us. He said he had had to use a tiller in his garden because there were two silver maple trees in his yard, and that they have these extensive shallow root systems that branch out into little balls of tiny roots, acting pretty much as sponges that suck the moisture from anything near them. The root systems are so tight that they prevent moles from invading your garden, but that’s about the only benefit provide. Our neighbor said that last summer, they sucked all of the moisture from the surrounding areas in his lawn and killed the grass.
Those shallow roots and balls of tiny root systems are what I was running into in the front bed as well. My chives have done really well there, and so far the snap peas and Swiss chard are not showing any signs of distress, so I’m hopeful that planting herbs there will be fine too, but we’ll see. At any rate, I’m going to work hard to get as many of the roots I do find out of there.
Things like this could stress me out, but for now, it feels like part of a bigger picture of give and take, of trying to execute an idea but also negotiating with reality.
Silver maples make gardening difficult anywhere in their vicinity. We had four, 25-30 year old silver maples at our former residence. I had limited success growing hostas and a few other perennials under one of those tree’s canopy but it meant keeping an eye on the plants and watering them more frequently than plants in more open areas of our property. And they didn’t grow as big as other plants growing elsewhere. Fortunately, the new house doesn’t have any silver maples, and we won’t be adding any!
Best,
Terry
Thanks for the advice – I probably would have put the garden beds elsewhere as well, but they were already established before we moved here, so I assumed they would grow things. Time will tell, I am sure. The tree is actually in our next door neighbor’s yard, about 20 feet away from the garden. I am glad at least that I extended the garden bed north, and the part I extended is all above ground (my lasagna garden portion). I am also curious to see how the plants I put in there will do – I have mostly herbs planned, and some of them are very hardy in dry situations, so we’ll see. . .