Debora Slosser

I’ve been busy last week, watching the garden and because it stopped being only hot all the time, but got back to normal dutch weather, I could see that I could plant the trees in different spots. I’ve planted them in the 2 open spots in the garden. Because of the walls and fence on the east side they will be more protected from the cold east wind, in winter. And get a lot of sun from the south.

I didn’t want to cut in those roots of the tree too much. I don’t want it to weaken or die.

As far as the neighbours go: they don’t use their garden at all, and I don’t think they will trim those blackberries at all. The blackberrieroots that came under the fence, I did cut back completly.
I will dig down as far as I can without hurting the big tree and put down a rootbarrier there and build a high raised bed along the fence, and plant other things there.

I’ve been helping out in the community garden across the street as Well, and it looks like I can get a bigger space there! Some of the older People can’t work as much as they like, so they are willing to give their plot to me. That gives me Lots of options for planting. ( it’s a very nice community garden where People use a lot of permaculture principles, without knowing it. Like mulching, no dig, waterharvesting polyculture etc)

Thank you Don! I will look on the website!

I’m also worried that those roots will out compete everything I plant there. I’m not keen on using pots and containers, but Maybe it is better.

I can also plant them in the middle of the garden but i’m Worried about wind. It really can be windy here. And because our old garden was lying in the same direction, I know it will hit the trees hard even with all the buildings surrounding them.

I hope I can plant something there along the fence. I really don’t want all those tiles. I am hoping to bring Lots of edible perennials in the garden.

We are saving to make a green sedum roof on that flat roof of the big shed.
Also if I cross the street I have a community garden where I can grow a lot of my annual veggies.

I’m thinking of east Asian natural farming

John Duda wrote:I would take out one or more of those tiles on the ground, improve the soil with well composted manure or compost and plant your tree in the ground in the middle of the space. Alternatively; if you plant it along the property line I would do the same soil preparation, in the ground, and google the "espalier" pruning shape, so that you get the maximum benefit out of your tree. If you do use the espalier trimming style I would suggest not selecting a tree size smaller than semi-dwarf. Espalier requires a lot of pruning work, which means to me that the maximum length the tree grows along the property line would be ideal. This tree trimming shape would not be ideal if that pine tree is on the south side of your property.

The tree is west side of the garden.
I’m hoping to get rid of Lots of tiles, except for paths to the gate behind the small shed, the small shed and the big shed in the back of the garden. My daughter would like a long path to do Some rollerskating :)
Also at the back if the garden we will keep our table for eating and playing outside because that spot is almost always in the shade from the big shed.

I’ve ordered 3 dwarf trees, 2 pears and 1 self pollinating Apple ( also have Apple trees in my neighbourhood) which are advertised as “bush size”. I will look up the style for the pruning! Thanks for the tip

Bryant RedHawk wrote:Dan has some great ideas there for your problem Debora. So good that I can't come up with anything any better.

If you could find some 55 gal. food grade plastic barrels, they do make excellent root barriers when cut to fit your space.

Redhawk

Thanks! I’ll have a look and ask around if someone has Some of those barrels

Thank you for your reply! I love Some creative thinking and problem solving so this helps a lot. I don’t mind the tree. Anything green is better than concrete ;) so to think of it as a helper in my garden suits me Well. Hoping that raising the bed up to the fence, so to fill in all the grey concrete is enough. Putting something around the roots is a good idea! I’ll have a think about that.

I also have a spot on the other side of the garden, near the house next to the wall of the kitchen from the other neighbours. This spot is out of the wind but only has half of it that gets sun. So 1 tree would fit. I only worry about the roots of my tree against the foundations of the wall.

( I plan to paint this wall white again, and remove the tiling. We’ve moved in here only 3 weeks ago, so it’s still in the state the previous dwellers left it in. You should have seen the house! Terrible!)

Hello!
I’m starting a small permaculture project in my backyard in the Netherlands. We have just moved in this very small house. For this area it’s quite a big garden, but still very suburbian ;)
It has a high fence between us and the neighbours. They have a huge tree next to the fence, that looks like Some sort of pine and behind that a complete “forest” of blackberrie Bushes and some sort of small berries. They don’t seem to use it though. It is just there and the birds love it :)

But that fence is the perfect spot for my Apple and pear trees I’ve ordered. It gets the most sun.
The soil is full with plastic and sigarets and looks quite dead. I’ve started digging out the top layer to remove this and also getting rid of the tiles that are in almost the whole garden.
The problem is that the roots of the neighbours tree and Bushes grow Exactly where I want to grow my fruittrees :( I’ve removed a lot allready but I don’t want anything to happen with the neighbours plants.

How can I still plant my trees there? Dig a large area and free that from the roots, making a raised bed as high as I can, and fill it with better soil? Or is it better to move my trees a bit? They will not get as much sun, but the roots will have more space to grow.


(I’m sorry if there are any typo’s. English is not my native language, and i’m trying to type this on my phone with 3 kids running around :) )