Firstly, break up the soil surface with a garden fork and remove as many of the smaller fibrous roots as you can
Tree stumps and root systems often remain in the ground after tree removal. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill / The Irish Times
Q: Last summer I got all my evergreen trees removed but the roots still remain, some above ground level so sowing a lawn is not an option. The space is almost inaccessible to machinery to grind out these roots. Can you suggest a rough ground cover please. Miriam MacElroyUnfortunately, this is a common problem. Certain fast-growing, once-popular species of coniferous trees and hedges such as Leyland cypress are renowned for quickly becoming too large for the average-sized garden.
You don’t say whether the space the trees once occupied is shady or sunny or whether it’s relatively dry or poorly drained. Either way, the first thing you’ll need to do is to break up the soil surface with a garden fork and remove as many of the smaller fibrous roots as you can. The next step is to improve the starved soil around the remaining tree stumps by generously mulching it with a mixture of good-quality top-soil and well-rotted manure.
If the stumps are very large and unsightly, consider also the possibility of mounding soil over them to create a raised bed.
Many, but not all, of the above will also do well in full sun so long as the soil isn’t very dry and stony. You could also try prostrate rosemary ; varieties of roses from the supremely tough, drought-resistant Flower Carpet series; Mexican fleabane ; calamint ; creeping ceanothus and Euphorbia x wulfenii. To give any new planting the very best chance of success, I’d also recommend working some generous handfuls of a good-quality, slow-release organic fertiliser into the soil before planting.
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