Putting small stones round young trees – will they die?

Afternoon all.

I’m looking for some advice on the prevention of grass and weeds growing around some small trees growing in my garden.

The individual trees have chicken wire cages supported by bamboo canes around them to stop the local hares from munching on them. However there is a lot of grass growing inside the cages which is starting to look a bit scruffy.

My plan is to remove the grass and replace with stones to slow down the growth of the grass but will this have a detrimental impact on the trees? Should I put anything under the stones (cardboard?) to stop the weeds and grass growing.

Cheers in advance.

I put a circle of black weed membrane down around my new trees to try and prevent weeds and grass coming through. And then I put some bark chips on top of that (which the crows have now distributed throughout the rest of the garden). Shan’t imagine some stones would cause any problems to the tree but weeds will still come through without membrane.

we tend to put a layer of cardboard or wet newspaper and then woodchip. there’s an additional benefit in that it keeps moisture in during dry periods.

Cheers all.

Dig out or spray grass with round up first then membrane then stones otherwise it will grow up at the edges of the membrane.

I’ve put down small stones around some new tree/bushes in my garden. I did it not to stop weeds and such, but more a visual thing,

I’ve learned the stones are a PITA when strimming under the tree/bushes, in the main because the stones fly out at speed and also the weeds/grass just grows through.

Look nice though have to say, and the Jays and Blue Tits love scuttling under the bushes for grubs and flies..

Worth doing for that alone I reckon.

‘S pretty hard to kill a stone.

Just saying.

The easiest thing to do is place some nice looking angular shaped large stones in a circle around the base, in a circle slightly smaller than the expected tree canopy. Then spray inside this circle. The stones are easy to strim up against, and there’s a nice clear border when it comes to spraying. If you must you could put down weed membrane inside this circle and whatever decorative stuff you like, but remember bark and stones will make leaf clearance in autumn hard work. Maybe the largest grade slate chip you can find? That will stay in place more easily if you end up using a blower.

Like this http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Md5J6581F_g/U40tw4Vq1cI/AAAAAAAAB5o/IHJXeo8GBNY/s1600/IMG_7803.JPG

Or build it up a couple of inches like this https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/b7/dd/f5/b7ddf51f2bbbde11110b0ee496e398ff.jpg

Definitely NOT this: http://www.renegadegardener.com/images/5-14-02DDT2.jpg

Better still, plant a load of ground cover and low lying shrubs that’ll look nice and do the tree some favours.

Doubt it…stone will already be dead…’stone dead’, not ‘stone alive’…although stoned alive will lead to stone dead.

Thanks again for the replies.

The trees are pretty small – no chance of canopy or massive amounts of leaves to clear up for some time.

Here’s one of the oaks last year (prior to the Hare attack of 2014 and the erection of suitable defences):

****ing hare pretty much chewed it down to the ground – thought it was a gonner but it has bounced back this year.

‘S pretty hard to kill a stone.

Just saying.

I used nice white stones from B&Q. The tree died. Don’t do it.

Aah, saplings. I’d just strim within a couple of inches then rip out the grass by hand. You shouldn’t need to do this more than maybe 3 times a season for a couple of seasons.

‘S pretty hard to kill a stone.

Oh I dunno, this and a few drugs will see you right.

Dig a sod of turf away from the base, grass is big competition for saplings. Just hoe regularly like you would in a border and use the hole as a well if it’s a bit dry.

I get the requirement to remove the grass either by hoeing or by hand but getting to that grass when its behind chicken wire is a right PITA as I’ll have to remove and replace the wire each time.

If the stones extend beyond the edge of the wire then I can just strim round the stones. Job done.