Planting under conifers

[Karen]

Hi all, just joined after ordering and receiving the CD - it's a great reference guide and extremely well presented and thought out!

I've just moved house and am looking to redesign my medium sized garden, however, I have a row of about 8 rather large conifers at the end of the garden as a privacy screen. Luckily, they do get a majority of the sun during mid morning to mid afternoon, with some dappled shade at the roots. I would be grateful for any suggestions of what to plant underneath or around them to give some colour during the year. (My garden is North West (ish)).

Many thanks.

Karen

[podshell]

hi Karen

ive been thinking of planting under some conifers recently ,the problems faced tho are ;Acidity,shade and dryness so i have the idea of building a dry stone wall around the trrees to an height of betwen ten inches to eighteen inches so that you can fill inside the wall with compost,to stop the trees taking moisture from the compost line the bottom of the walled are with polythene or something waterproof(before filling),so the problem of dryness and acidity can be solved ,now with light all i can suggest is that if yo have any structures nearby(such as a fence or wall) that you could apply light coloured paint to to reflect sunlight under the trees.one problem that could occur is that the tree could put out roots into the compost i think this could be checked every six month say,by pushing a saw blade vertically down the trunk to check if any are protruding,and sawing them of blind,unless there is something you can paint onto the trunks(to stop root growth)prior to filling with compost.Pine needles also fall constantly all year round so these will have to be removed if you dont want them to affect the compost(i use pine needles now around beds just as a safety measure against slugs(they dont like crawling on them)

good luck