Can you grow a flowergarden???

Question

I have a big olde' chestnut tree in the front of my neighbours house, but the roots keep pushing into our yard, and everything under the overhanging of the tree dies if you plant anything. Do you think I can grow anything, if I put a barrier between the ground (ie: newspaper - lots of it) and then a bunch of soil on top. Do you think it'll work?

Answer 1

You can use plants that do not need direct sun light for survival. when you visit your local garden store ask about such plants. and about the roots popping up is little you can do to prevent roots from such a old tree form coming up over your yard.

Answer 2

You might have better luck if you place black plastic gardening barrier on the ground and then put a raised bed on top of that: soil surrounded with landscape timbers.

I've done that in some areas without the plastic. I put down just regular topsoil then Miracle Grow garden soil on top of which I put the plants and then cover with more of the MG garden soil. I add cypress mulch on top to not only help retain moisture but for beautification.

I wish you luck.

Answer 3

I think I would create a berm ( a mound of top soil ) plant shade loving plants and mulch and things will grow just fine. Give the berm a nice shape of course to compliment your yard. I hope the berm spelling was correct, if not I'm sorry for the mistake.

Answer 4

Try Lasagna Gardening. I've done this under my maple trees which have horrible, invasive roots and it works really well. Plus...it's super easy. :-)

Here's a link:
http://ourgardengang.tripod.com/lasagna_gardening.htm