Preparing To Plant A Woodland Garden

Many suburban lawns have bare patches beneath the trees — sometimes, grass just won’t grow under the trees because it cannot get enough light.

These bare areas may offend some lawn purists, and they may be difficult to care for if approached the wrong way. But to the open-minded, sparse turf in a shaded yard present an opportunity to reduce the amount of lawn to be mowed, and to create an eco-friendly, wildlife-attracting woodland garden.

If the trees are Black Walnut (Juglans nigra), one needs to choose plants resistant to the Juglone substance produced in the tree roots. If not, there are many American native forbs and grasses that will grow very well beneath your trees. And, once established, they will require very little maintenance.

In any case, it’s prettier than a mulch ring.

First, however, you need to prepare the area. The plot should be substantial — one can assume that your tree’s canopy and the shade it supplies will expand with time. The plot border should be at least five feet from the central tree trunk on all sides. Decide on an edging material, and install it in order to help delineate the plot border. Edging will also help keep turf and weeds from invading your garden.

Though the area you’ve chosen may be mostly bare, there will still probably be some weeds and turf. You need to eliminate them. Digging up turf and removing it is a good option for smaller plots. Pulling the remaining weeds also should not be too much of a challenge. Applying surface herbicide like Round-Up, though, is far more effective. Read the instructions and be careful not to kill your tree.

You can also water the area and then cover it with weed barrier fabric. You should weigh down the fabric and make sure it touches the soil at all points of the plot. Leaving this fabric down for a year should kill any turf and weeds. It will also keep any of the ubiquitous weed seeds in you soil from germinating.

Once the grass and weeds in your plot have been eliminated (if you used a weed barrier, you should remove it), you should lightly roto-till the plot. Try not to harm your tree’s roots when you do this.

Try to time when your plot is ready for planting and seeding to be late fall, or early spring. To keep weeds down and to initially shade your seedlings, seed your plot with annual rye (Lolium multiflorum) to act as a nurse crop.

Some plants to consider for your woodland garden:

* Anemone quinquefolia (Wood Anemone)
* Tradescantia virginiana (Virginia Spiderwort)
* Trillium grandiflorum (Large Flowered Trillium)
* Viola canadensis (Canada Violet)
* Monarda didyma (Beebalm)
* Monarda fistulosa (Bergamot)
* Dryopteris cristata (Crested Woodfern)
* Polygonatum canaliculatum (Great Solomon’s-Seal)

These plants are not only attractive, but they also do well under Black Walnut trees.

As you prepare your woodland garden plot, you can research what Native American plants will thrive in it. There are tall shade grasses like Chasmanthium latifolium (Northern Sea Oats) that by themselves make a dramatic statement. There are seemingly innocuous sedges like Carex eburnea (Ivory Sedge) that naturally stay low to the ground. And there are the tall Eupatoriums, Eupatorium purpureum (Sweet Joe Pye Weed), and Eupatorium fistulosum (Tall Joe Pye Weed), that attract Monarch butterflies from miles around.

Once established, your garden may even attract the occasional hummingbird.