How to Create a Garden Beneath a Big Leaf Maple Tree

When I bought my new home, I had no gardens. I love flowers, so week one I started transplanting plant starts from my old home into my new yard wherever I could find space. My husband, however, had helped run a nursery at one point in life. He stopped my random stick here and there methods and encouraged me to design a set of gardens before I dug the grass out of the area, improved the dirt for planting, and installed my plan.

Well, anyone who has gardened knows that reality derails the best plans. That I couldn't find the plants I selected was the second problem encountered. That the plants couldn't survive in the garden location became the third. With the garden I planned to grow beneath my Big Leaf Maple in my backyard, lack of plant selection criteria hobbled my ability to plant. My books recommended that any time you plan a garden, the first task is understanding the growing conditions; not so easy when dealing with a Big Leaf Maple tree. TimeLife How-To Garden Designs[1] has the best overview on evaluating conditions.

So what did I know about the area beneath the Big Leaf Maple (acer macrophyllum)?

1) in summertime, the roots of the tree sucked out all moisture like a sponge

2) in summertime, the light quality was either scorching with sunshine, or shady

3) in wintertime, more light became available with the loss of leaves, and more moisture found it's way to plant roots

4) a former pile of firewood and other debris, along with the tree had deprived most of the nutrients from the soil

5) tree roots grew densely beneath the tree

So I started looking in books, but generally dry and sunny or wet and shady were the combinations most documented for selecting plants that met the above conditions. Borders [2] contained the best list of plants for dry shade. Ortho Books Flower Garden Plans[3] has designs for a shade garden and cool tones.

One advantage I had came from the green belt behind the house, which showed that native plants would grow beneath a Big Leaf Maple. Regina Sass has a good article on where to buy plants in Washington. Natives that grow well beneath big leaf maple include:

1) ferns

2) service berry

3) alum root

4) mahonia

5) abelia

Because of the problem with the roots, I decided to build up the area, planting railroad timbers on one side as a retaining wall. I added several yards of dirt, quite a bit of chicken and steer manure, and several layers of mulch and worked it in. See [4] for more information on preparation of soil.

My vision for the garden was an area with blue, white and purple flowers mixed up together in a random pattern to enhance the peaceful nature of the borrowed green belt landscape. I wanted wisteria to grow up the tree trunk and drip blue flowers over top the entire area. I also wanted a year round plantings and a bench for sitting in the garden. The Border Book [4] has many color combinations. Gardening in Shade [5] has information and designs for many different combinations of shade and heat and moisture. Christina Bude's article describes a less hot shady garden.

What didn't work?

1) Azaleas, but not because of growing conditions. Deer browse through my yard on a regular basis. I ruled these out after losing several.

2) Same for Euonymus.

3) Sarcocca. Competition for root space left this plant stunted.

4) Same for wisteria

5) Aster grows but gets moldy from too much shade

6) Astilbe bulb didn't work either, I think because it requires more summertime water to get started

7) No grasses have grown

8) Bearberry burned up

What worked?

1) Anything else with a bulb, except crocus and bluebells, which the squirrels adore. This includes iris, daffodil, hyacinth, snowdrops, cyclamen.

2) Plants with a tuber also work, including day lilies and jupiter's beard.

3) Herbs-many herbs are used to dry conditions in changing light conditions. What has grown well includes sage, salvia, catmint.

4) Wildflowers especially columbine, bleeding heart, forget-me-nots, ground cover daisies, cornflower and perennial/hardy geranium

5) Euphorbias

6) Spirea and service berry are growing nearby.

Other difficulties include:

1) in fall, tons of maple seeds are dumped on the garden followed by tons of leaves. I need to pick both up almost immediately or risk killing the underlying plants and planting a whole new crop of trees

2) the bench didn't work out because by raising the area, it made the garden rounded on top rather than flat

3) The color restriction ruled out many plants that might have worked

The wisteria is now growing up the maple tree after I planted it in a former burn barrel that I painted green with metal paint. Kendra Dahlstrom has good advice on picking supports for your plants. My husband attached fencing around the maple to allow the wisteria to climb. About July, everything dries out until late November when I begin to get a bit of green returning.

[1] TimeLife How-To Garden Designs

[2] Borders by Barbara Segall

[3] Ortho Books Flower Garden Plans by Philip Edinger

[4] The Border Book by Anna Pavord

[5] Gardening in Shade by Linden Hawthorne, American Horticulture Society