Near-trunk circles of fruit trees: description, features of care and recommendations

For the trees to grow quickly, they were strong and high, they need care. This applies to both ornamental and fruit species. If earlier the trunks around the trees were left in the form of open areas of soil, which they dug up and fertilized in autumn and spring or covered with mulch, in our time an increasing number of summer residents plant flowers, spicy and vegetable crops on them or sow lawns.

It not only beautifies the garden and benefits the trees themselves, but also allows to save the plot area in favor of other plant species.

To dig or not to dig?

For many gardeners, the vital question is how to properly care for fruit trees and when to dig around the ground around them, whether to do it at all, or better to sow this area with grass. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. Among the advantages of digging are the following:

• Pests will be less or they will disappear altogether.
• Since the near-trunk circle of fruit trees expands as they grow, this makes it possible to use this land with benefit, for example, to break a flower garden.

Since there are more shortcomings in digging around the trees around the trees, many summer residents have abandoned this practice. It is caused by the fact that:

• When digging up the soil in the fall, not only pests are destroyed, but also useful microorganisms. For example, aerobic bacteria living on the surface require oxygen. When digging, the top layer of the soil is turned over and they turn out to be underground. Deprived of oxygen, they die, and since it is aerobic bacteria that supply essential nutrients to plants, trees are deprived of vital elements.
• When digging, there is always the risk of damage to the roots. Especially this applies to those that are closer to the surface and receive the necessary nutrition from it.
• Autumn digging reduces the frost resistance of trees, as the soil becomes open to cold.

Each summer resident decides for himself how to take care of his garden, but more and more people tend to believe that the soil around the trees is an area that can be used with sense and benefit for both the plant and for themselves.

Flower beds and flower beds around trees

In the light of the above, gardeners prefer to use trunks and plant them either with mixed herbs, or with flowers, or with useful vegetables and spices. This has its advantages:

• Gradually, the untouched soil is enriched by growing plants on it, which, having outlived their time, become a natural top dressing for the tree.
• It is especially useful to sow the near-trunk circles for additional warming of the root system. Roots "neighbors" create a kind of pillow, which does not allow frost penetrate into the ground.
• In the summer, a lawn or flower garden protects the roots from the sun, and the tree needs less watering.
• Prestvolevye circles of trees, filled with vegetation, do not require digging and special weeding, which not only frees us from unnecessary work, but also contributes to the preservation of the fertile layer of the earth.

Given all the advantages, more and more dacha owners use the soil around the trees to plant beautiful or useful plants.

It is important to know: plants do not always combine with each other. Before you put something, you need to make sure that the "neighborhood" will be mutually beneficial. This is especially important for fruit trees, as their harvest can significantly decrease from satellites, which will act on them depressingly.

Types of trickle circles and care for them

Decoration and care of the soil around the tree begins with its planting. So, when he is 2-3 years old, he is 2 m, by the age of 6 he reaches 3 m, and by 10-12 - 3,5-4 m. Along with the growth of the crown, his trunks circle grows, whose appearance, as the tree grows older change.

Care for the soil depends on how the soil looks around the seedling:

• If the land remains under black steam, then it needs regular weeding and easy loosening after every rain or watering. In the presence of heavy soil, autumn digging should be carried out annually, whereas on loams this can be done every 2-3 years.
• Mulching, although the best way to preserve moisture, improve soil quality and protect against cold weather, is nevertheless considered by many gardeners to be a waste of land. The mulching methods are described below.

• Decorated trunks are becoming increasingly popular, as they simplify the care for them and allow creating beautiful flower beds, lawns or mini-gardens.

It is important to know: if planting a plant around the tree, it should be taken into account that its trunk should be already high enough (from 75 cm), and branches - raised above the ground.

Materials for decor of trunk lobes

Long ago, the days when the design of the tree trunk consisted only of mulching or "bare" soil. Today, landscape designers use natural and artificial materials, seeds of flowers and herbs for this purpose.

Summer residents from them do not lag behind and ennoble their gardens:

• Decorative stone;
• Gravel and pebbles;
• Glass;
• Fabrics of synthetic fiber, for example, agril;
• Lawns;
• Beds with spices;
• Healing herbs.

It is important to know: the soil around the trees is a useful area when properly used. What is permissible on large landscaped lawns does not make sense on a plot of 6 hectare, where every meter of land is on the account.

Stone decoration

The application of small pebbles or gravel to decorate the trunks is especially popular among summer residents, who can not give their garden much time. These "assistants" are capable of:

• Retain moisture;
• Protect the roots from hot sunlight and severe frost;
• Do not let the weeds grow;
• Not to allow pests.

Such decor of the near-barrel circle frees the gardener from weeding, loosening and digging up the land. Stones are a natural material that is durable, does not scatter from the gusts of the wind and looks spectacular.

Mulching

In regions where rain is rare, and frosts are not, summer residents use dry muck, straw, peat or leaves with reeds as mulch. There are reasons for this:

• This is a natural fertilizer, which is dug in the spring and gives the roots additional nutrition;
• Such mulch warms the soil;
• Well retains moisture.

It is important to know: such mulching should be done not only 10-15 cm from the trunk, as many gardeners do, but throughout the near-barrel circle.

However, in warmer regions, an increasing number of summer residents prefer not simply mulch the near-trunk circle of fruit trees, but also decorate it. For this, pine cones are perfect, for example. They look nice, keep the heat well, let in and hold the moisture, do not get blown away by the wind and do not give chance to the weeds to grow through this barrier.

In any case, the choice of which natural material to use for mulching, remains for the summer owner, based on the weather conditions and the needs of the tree itself.

Lawn around trees

A beautiful well-groomed lawn always looks spectacular. It is not an exception when it covers the tree trunk of an apple tree, for example, or other fruit trees. Such luxury can afford to owners of large plots. As the grass grows, it is cut with a lawn mower and cleaned. As practice shows, the lawn in the trunk is a beautiful ornament that provides additional care to the tree:

• Protects from the sun;
• Protects from colds;
• Well retains moisture;
• The roots of the grass themselves loosen the soil, and it breathes.

It is important to know: the lawn requires constant care, otherwise the garden will look overgrown and abandoned. Also trees need regular spring top dressing, which is better to make directly under the roots.

Grassing of the trunks with mixed grasses

Owners of the treasured six-hundredths of a lawn is not suitable, so the best solution is to create a cultural backwater, for which the seeds of herbs are used. It is better to sow perennial grasses, for example, a grass mixture of meadow fescue (up to 60%) and meadow grass (40%).

As the grass grows, it must be cut and folded under the trees, as this is the best natural fertilizer that frees the horticulturist from additional organic fertilizing. Such a delusion serves as a natural "carpet", which preserves the roots of trees from the scorching sun, severe frosts and drought.

Flower garden

Before you start creating a flower garden, beds with herbs or herbs, you should find out which plants of the trunks of trees bring the maximum benefit to the tree. For example, with the apple tree the following flowers are combined:

• Daisies;
• Daffodils;
• lungwort;
• pansies;
• Forget-me-nots;
• Bells;
• nasturtium;
• Periwinkle.

They will not only decorate the trunks, but will also have a beneficial effect on the yield of the tree. Among spices and vegetable crops, the apple tree coexists well with:

• Dill;
• Radishes;
• Feather bow;
• Salad;
• Sorrel;
• Basil.

To date, cultivation of tree trunks is a common practice, not a tribute to fashion. When the land can not only be used properly, ennobled and decorated, but without much effort to improve its composition, this is the chance to make your site perfect.