leaf mulching and tree roots

I am about to get a wonderful free workout from raking three acres of leaves. Some will be piled onto the cardboard lawn to garden project, while others I would like to pile under my mature trees. I am confused on the mulching under trees. I have read that certain mulching can harm the tree roots because of weight and mold. I have many trees where roots are exposed, if I have researched correctly, I believe I want to remedy that. My goal is to not have the weedy type plants growing under the trees such as Canadian Goldenrod and even grass. (I do love the golden rod, they are welcome in many other places) I would like to eventually plant the circle of beneficial companions. Do I need to do something more helpful in ridding what I don't want before piling on the leaves? Would cardboard or packing paper be harmful if layered under the leaves? I am assuming I want air flow and very light mulch on the roots, yes?
I have several trees that have a ground cover of Glechoma headeracea, which I am happy with. Would a light leaf mulching be fine and not harm the ground cover?

Thank you so much,
Pamela

Hello Pamela. I’m to the point I no longer worry about it. I’ve piled layers of leaves and wood chips around all of my trees. The problem I had initially was getting a good grouping of plants to grow in my tree mulch. The only thing I recommend is shredding the leaves if possible. After much trial and error I can recommend a few plants. Strawberries do great! I get a good harvest of them growing directly under pear and peach trees. Saint John’s Wort also does incredibly well as do potatoes. Yea, potatoes. Honestly, that’s a great place to start. Get a potato yield while you wait for things to break down enough. Sweet potatoes are good too. I have a Crepe Myrtle tree that I want to cut down but my wife won’t let me. The roots run all over the ground so I built up the biomass under hoping it would die. It hasn’t but I’ve been growing tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs under it. Running veggies like cucumbers do the best because they grow towards the light. Hope this helps, Scott.

Thank you Scott for the advice and the variety of suggestions of edibles to grow under the trees. I had not come across many of your suggestions in my readings. Ok, so I am not going to worry and just go out and exercise and experiment with edibles in a new location.

I’m happy to help. Like you, I looked far and wide for advice. After I posted my comment yesterday I went out to take notes. One pear tree has strawberries, Saint John’s Wort, and carrots. A peach has walking onions, garden sage, and chamomile. The next is another pear. Strawberries, walking onions, and pineapple sage. The next pear has no mulch because I planted comfrey around it.
I was inspired by Sepp Holzer’s plant families. Apparently he uses everything. The real stars of the show here are St John’s wort and strawberries. It doesn’t take long for them to give you a permanent ground cover.

One tree done and a whole lot more to do. I used about 17 feet of short wire fencing on this one. I am looking forward to seeing what the spring will bring. Thank you Scott for the suggestions of edibles to plant, now to make a decision, the hard part.

I used only leaves and not shredded.

Looks great Pamela! Looks like another weird experiment I did that worked. I fenced in all the un shredded leaves I could get. They settled over the next few months. In early spring I put in seed potatoes. In May I made small holes, dropped in compost and stuck sweet potato slips in. I harvested regular and sweet potatoes in fall! They were great and that compost was ready to use the next spring.

I wouldn't pile them up against the trunk or over the exposed roots.  Had some agressive fungus start on a very large oak with leaves piled around the trunk during a wet spell.  I raked them back and the fungus cleared up.

Thank you, I have moved them back a bit from the tree. I certainly had very few weeds since putting the leaves. They mostly broke down nicely. The neighbors horses and hubby mowing destroyed my small fence. 🙄 The exact purpose of the fence to prevent stomping and mowing. Oh well. Will start planting edibles underneath in the fall.

Thank you for the input.
pamela

Don’t forget to show pictures of your progress!