will raspberries grow under leylandii?

[creag]

I want to plant some rasps in a bed overlooked on the north east by a neighbours leylandii. They are on the other side of the fence and we have cut them back on our side to make room. the rasps will be south west facing.
Would I have any problem with the root or soil?

[FB.]

The only possible problem is that the trees may pull a lot of water and nutrients out of the ground. You might need to water regularly in summer, or add a little more nutrients to the soil than normal.

Apart from that, I don't see a problem.

[rustylady]

Nothing seems to grow well under Leylandii - I hate the b***** stuff.

[Nicos]

I have a massive fir tree which casts good shade on my potager against the mid-day sun.
Unfortunately that's where my rasps are too...about 6ft from the base of the tree trunk
Maybe dig a trough and put in lots of compost and the rasps above with plenty of mulch.
Rasp roots are very shallow so tend to dry out easily. I water mine and it seems to work.

[valmarg]

I think the consensus answer is 'no', insofar as leylandii are such gross feeders that your raspberries would struggle to survive, let alone provide fruit.

valmarg

[creag]

thanks folks, I think the trees are going to be greedy but I may give it a go anyway. Any ideas what else would grow there?

[FB.]

Dig down and cut off the tree roots on your side of the fence.

Put a solid barrier - old planks or slabs - to inhibit tree roots growing back.

Consider a partial lining of the pit you've dug out to access the tree roots (with some old plastic sacks - perforated for partial drainage) which would hold moisture and nutrients in the upper layers (subject to not waterlogging due to inadequate drainage!) and this will prevent much moisture or nutrients getting down to the conifer roots and half-starve them, so will slow down the trees assault (roots won't grow into dry soil and your perforated sacks will make it pretty dry underneath them).

A neighbour of mine was so fed up with a cherry tree affecting his front garden that he covered his garden with sacks and put an inch of gravel over the sacks. Within a couple of years, the cherry tree had died of drought stress, as a result of no water getting deep down into the man's garden.
After the trees death, he then pulled up the gravel and sacking and was able to plant a normal garden again.

[plymouthred]

Slightly off topic but I am brand new to gardening and have identified a spot of garden to grow some veg however the area is surrounded by Leylandii trees.

Would adding a raised veg bed work? The area is facing south and therefore gets a good deal of sun during the day although one of the trees might have to come down?

[chengjing]

Slightly off topic but I am brand new to gardening and have identified a spot of garden to grow some veg however the area is surrounded by Leylandii trees.

Would adding a raised veg bed work? The area is facing south and therefore gets a good deal of sun during the day although one of the trees might have to come down?

I had that experience before growing veg bed next to the leylandii hedge. Every year I had to dig out loads of root, and the bed was always dry. In the end the hedge had to go.