Personal Consumer Issues • Removing grass and mulching around trees?

We are trying to reduce the amount of grass we have and there's a section in our yard near a small tree we'd like to mulch. Neither the tree nor the grass are doing well because they are competing for water. The problem is that the grass has grown all the way up to the tree trunk and the tree's roots are very shallow as a result. I can't dig out the grass (or dig down) without harming the tree's roots.

I've removed what I can by hand, but was thinking of mowing the remaining grass very short around the tree and putting down a layer of weed barrier everywhere except for the tree's drip line in the hopes of killing the grass underneath. Around the drip line I'll put layers of cardboard.

Is that effective and safe for the tree?

I've tried the cardboard and newspaper method that's recommended online for another tree, but it doesn't really stay in place and blows all over.

My other problem is mulch. Since the roots are so shallow around the tree, the ground is going to be very uneven and I can't dig down so that the mulch has somewhere to sit below the landscape edging. My concern is that the mulch will be higher than surrounding landscape and will just blow off during the first big wind.

Is there anything you can do to prevent that?

I guess the last resort would be using some kind of herbicide to kill the grass but not the tree, but I'd really, really prefer not to do that.

Statistics: Posted by NYCaviator — Sun May 19, 2024 11:04 am — Replies 7 — Views 376

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