Suggestion For Ground Cover Plant For Orchard, pls

RiderOnTheStorm

Have planted about 12 fruit trees over last few years, hoping to have an orchard in years to come. Dont want to have a lawn there also, so dithered for ages, and now lots of weeds & wild flowers coming up now. If I remove all weeds, is there some plant I can put down that wont need mowing, and wont take over? Camomile? Cottoneaster? Should I try to keep it plant free (weed barrier & bark / gravel?) so trees get all water & nutrients possible?

Any tips welcome....

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

There's are reasons why orchards have traditionally had ground cover of mown grass strips with the area immediately around the trees kept bare. Primary is that the ground cover doesn't compete with the trees for moisture and nutrients. Another is to ensure underplanting doesn't attract pests; although plants to attract pollinators may be beneficial.

macraignil

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

Have planted about 12 fruit trees over last few years, hoping to have an orchard in years to come. Dont want to have a lawn there also, so dithered for ages, and now lots of weeds & wild flowers coming up now. If I remove all weeds, is there some plant I can put down that wont need mowing, and wont take over? Camomile? Cottoneaster? Should I try to keep it plant free (weed barrier & bark / gravel?) so trees get all water & nutrients possible?

Any tips welcome....

Plants that wont need mowing are likely to be out competed by weeds. Camomile would not likely control weeds without help and I don't think it would thrive in shade. Cottoneaster would compete with the fruit trees. Some varieties of cotoneaster grow into trees themselves and all varieties I know would have roots that would go as deep as the fruit tree roots and so would be directly competing with them. The advantage of mowed or grazed grass is that the roots don't go very deep and the growth is strong enough to out compete most weeds.

Maybe a couple of sheep in your orchard might be the solution to not having to mow the grass and you could mix in some clover with the grass to help add some nitrogen to the system. The nutrients from the sheep droppings or grass clippings would help feed the fruit tree roots so I think both these options would be better than weed membrane and gravel or bark as this option does not facilitate any new nutrients circulating into the roots of the fruit trees and many weeds will settle on the surface of this and grow anyway despite the membrane. It would however make the weeding a bit easier as the roots of weeds would be slower to get a grip in the soil.

Another option might be some plant that is adapted to the shade under trees like bluebells, ivy or wild garlic but again as you do not have the option of mowing there would be more of a manual weed control requirement. Might also be worth considering just leaving the wildflowers grow away and take out the more awkward weeds as they grow. Some of my fruit trees are completely surrounded by raspberry plants which do seem to keep down the weeds but getting to the apples to pick them is a bit of a challenge.

RiderOnTheStorm

Plenty of food for thought there. Thanks folks.

Graces7

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

Plenty of food for thought there. Thanks folks.

Or a goat....;) I am serious.. much more fun that sheep

Ms2011

I use sedum album 'coral carpet' for ground cover in my rockery. It grows & spreads fast, stays low to the ground, is low maintenance & drought tolerant, crowds out weeds & flowers for about a month in the summer with white flowers that bees & butterflies go nuts for.

RiderOnTheStorm

Graces7 wrote:

Or a goat.... I am serious.. much more fun that sheep

Yeah, I had chickens up there until recently. Great at keeping grass & weeds down.

RiderOnTheStorm

Ms2011 wrote:

I use sedum album 'coral carpet' for ground cover ....

Thx Ms, will look into that...

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

Yeah, I had chickens up there until recently. Great at keeping grass & weeds down.

Whatever you do, don't put goats in an orchard unless you're willing to goat-proof every tree. They will strip bark and eat shoots.

RiderOnTheStorm

Isabella Fit Festival wrote:

Whatever you do, don't put goats in an orchard unless you're willing to goat-proof every tree. They will strip bark and eat shoots.

...good point.

At least the trees were too small for chickens to climb! Yes, chickens love trees!!