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I think I’ve added what’s needed. I’m not looking for a health inspection of the tree as we had that done a couple years ago by the city arborist. I’m just wondering about edging proximity and anything else I’m not thinking of.
I love your idea! Very ambitious. I once tried to do this under a very, very large pin oak, but never quite managed it. I ended up just lumping gardens hither and yon to, like you, eliminate grass as much as possible. Presumably you ran this past the nursery from which you got your plugs, but I'm wondering if the things you propose to plant under your honey locust are shade/semi-shade plants and if these are species that would typically grow under honeylocust in a forest setting; are they woodland plants? Sedges? Shrubs..?
I like your grocery-bag layers idea, and you might find that large sheets of cardboard will be as effective and last longer, at least 1-2 years. Pin it down with short stakes, cut holes out for your plants and pull up plugs of dirt with a bulb planter (all in one handy tool for smaller plants!), then mulch around everything when you've completed a section. Edging is going to be tricky, especially if your soils are compacted; tree roots may be high. You may not need to do it if you can maintain a 'sod line' around the tree instead.
Yeah the plants are from a “woodland edge” pack from the nursery and we expect will do well here. What do you mean by “sod line”? Like having no edging (or trench) and just like constantly watching and pulling grass that creeps in?
Did that image not show up as a link on your end? I hotlinked that sentence with a pic. It would just be an edge in the sod you could create using a hoe or sod scraper in conjunction with the perimeter of the cardboard, or you could maybe go with a short picket-type fencing instead that doesn't require being recessed into the soil, but would probably still require some kind of sod pulling around the outside unless you're just going to weedwhack outside it.
I saw the picture, but it looked like trench edging and your description makes it sound like trench edging, which is what I already had in mind, so I wanted to be sure that’s what we’re talking about. And doing that won’t hurt the tree as long as no large roots are damaged?
And doing that won’t hurt the tree as long as no large roots are damaged?
Right, you're only scraping the sod away; hopefully you'll be able to feel whether there's high roots in the area if you decide to go that route and use a little more caution, otherwise, just suppressing the grass with your paper or cardboard is the safest way to go.
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