How to prevent maple trees from getting in my flower garden
by
Rose Baillie
+2
My neighbor has a big maple tree in his front yard and all those little whirly things blew in my flower garden and now I have a forest of them. What can I do to prevent this next year?
Related Discussions
Suggested Project Book
Rake, rake, and rake some more!
http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/maple_seeds_dropping_in_soon
Pull up the seedlings while they are small. There is nothing you can do to prevent the seeds from being blown into your yard. You can put down mulch, but it won't prevent the seeds from landing, and it may not prevent them from sprouting.
Hi Rose, If you have any sort of civil relationship with your neighbor, maybe they would consider spraying their tree to prevent the seeds from growing. Here's a link: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/kill-tree-seedlings-63078.html
If not, you may want to consult a gardening specialist to see what they recommend. Using a pre emergent herbicide would prevent most of the new seedlings from growing in your yard, but may damage your lawn etc...
Good luck!
You're dealing with a formidable opponent! Tree roots can extend well beyond the canopy of the crown of a tree. Maple trees are especially aggressive, developing an incredible network of surface feeder roots. These roots seek moisture and nutrients and will out-compete the roots of annuals and perennials by virtue of their stronger drawing power. The roots gravitate to the soil of your flower beds because of the moisture that's available there. Outside of digging your beds, lining them with hardware cloth or tough weed barrier, replacing the soil and then planting your annuals and perennials, there's really no way of keeping the tree roots out. You may want to relocate your flower beds or garden in raised beds (with hardware cloth attached to the bottoms of the beds).
The others giving advice don't live in Canada where this is a spring season maple tree thing every year. One cannot spray to get rid of the seed pods that go everywhere. You don't say where you live but I can only tell you that each and every maple key that lands in your garden and sprouts must be pulled out. I use a leaf blower to rid the garden of most before they take root but I always miss some that must be pulled. I even used to have maple trees growing in my gutters before I put in a screen to keep them out. You can't keep mother nature from doing her thing. Good luck.