What fruitnut suggests has worked very well for me. I first acidified my potting soil (1/2 peat compost and 1/2 azaella, camellia mix) with about 1/2 cup of soil sulfer (large pots). I then planted, taking care to break up the root ball (apparently very important, as they can have root ball shock if you dont' do this). I watered in carefully, then set my drips. I checked the pH for the next couple of weeks every day. I had to adjust my pH down a wee bit, and I did this with a few tablespoons of ammonium sulfate diluted in a couple of gallons of water. I made sure the pH of the acidified water was about 4, since I needed to pull down the pH a bit. That did the trick and they have been doing extremely well ever since. I did check the pH about 3 or 4 weeks ago, and it was still around 4.5 to 5.0 per pot. So, they're happy campers and I'll even get some fruit this year. After the fruit is off, I'll pinch back like what fruitnut has done to keep the tallness down, and get them to bush out a bit, especially my more leggy blueberries. Patty S.

I'll share what works for me, and you decide whether or not it is appropriate to your situation. I have had great success with composting in place / hybrid lasagna gardening to keep the grass and weeds out of my gardens. I have a few raised beds in my lawn and I keep a border which I think sounds similar to what you have or are wanting to do. I keep it simple and mix my freshly cut lawn clippings with used coffee grounds and a good amount of cross-cut shredded newspaper. I put this mixture down generously (in inches deep) over the area where I don't want any grass/weeds coming up and then I top it all off with loads of hay/straw (I don't know which is what, but it comes in a bale so I will call it "hay") to keep the sunlight out. My thought is that under the layer of hay, the fresh clippings, UCG and newspaper eventually heat up and kill or severely weaken the grass and weeds. The hay seems to prevent any additional germination by keeping out the sunlight. Add more hay as necessary to keep area covered. The sun does a nice job of bleaching the hay in place, so I think it is an attractive mulch that does a great job. I used to think this was my idea since I just took a chance on it out of frustration of battling (and losing to) the weeds and "lawn creep". But, it's not a new idea. Here are a couple of links that I discovered after the fact. Wish I had read these a long time ago... Ruth Stout And Permanent Hay Mulch Hay Makes a Great Mulch

I have a lot of eucalyptus trees growing along the fence of the units next door. I have a passion-fruit growing in a pot and it was matted over with the white roots; the pot was on a concrete slab so the roots could not have travelled from the tree. A friend of mine said the Chinese pay money to buy these roots as it is good for the soil but I believe they are choking the young trees including my passion fruit although it is not dead. I made a raised garden and placed a weed protector half a meter high on the sides yet the raised garden is full of it and it has attached itself to the weedmat.

Gal, I deal with something similar each spring. So, our city fathers, in their infinite wisdom, redesigned our main commercial street about ten years ago. It was decided to plant trees in what amounts to concrete vaults-these things go 4 ft. down below grade, so there's nowhere for the roots to spread out to. Then, flowerbeds were decided upon at each end of these tree beds. I might not be making this very clear, but in any case, what has resulted is that each year, we have to try to plant stuff in what amounts to a mass of tree roots-almost no actual soil to work with. It sucks, let me tell you! We just do what must be done, cutting and chopping those roots out of the way. It's not right for the trees, and it's not ideal for the flowers, and so on that we then plant, but it's the best compromise available to us. In fact, because once the flowering stuff is planted, we water, fertilize, etc....the tree roots rapidly regrow back into that area. We have considered installing a barrier but in reality, this should have been done at initial construction, a point which, by the way, I made loudly and often back then!