Underplanting Fruit Trees with Sweet Woodruff

[kathsjag]

I planted several fruit trees this past Fall and I am trying to decide on a suitable green mulch to underplant with. I have enough room to tolerate the spread of sweet woodruff, but cannot find much information on the pro's and con's of using this herb as a green mulch. Any suggestions?

[Monika]

I am not sure about sweet woodruff as a green mulch, but once you have planted it you will have problems to contain it because it spreads very easily. We have used poached egg flowers (limnanthes douglasii) as ground cover under the fruit because it tends to flower the same time as the fruit trees and therefore brings insects in from far and wide which, in turn, help to pollinate the fruit.

The poached egg flower dies back in autumn but by that time it has seeded itself for the following year. Any stray seedlings can be easily hoed off contrary to the woodruff every little bit of which seems to take root!

[kathsjag]

Thank you for the information. It seems that bees love the poached egg flowers and the flowers do well in clay soil, both of which I have, so that may just do the trick.