Question
Hello, Thank you for any help you might give me.
My yard man just planted some ground cover around a horrible tree I have....grass never grew around the area but tons of little baby growths from the tree do.  I pulled alot of them out with "some" roots but alot were left undisturbed.  My yard guy laid down a black cloth, to keep roots from coming through and laid top soil mixed with peat moss and compost not very thick and planted my little 4 inch jasmines.  I am concerned they will not survived in such small amount of soil and the use of the cloth cover.   Please help...as I may still pull everything up if need be!!!  Desperate of Jasmine in Houston

Answer
Hi Bonnie, if he cut through the fabric to plant the 4" pots in the soil below, everything will be fine.  The ground cover will root through the fabric as it grows.  Just make sure you keep them watered until they are established. I would hope the added soil is not more than an inch deep.  A tree can easily be smothered by adding soil on the root zone.
If the soil is deeper than an inch and he planted the jasmine on top of the fabric, you'll really have to watch the water. It's very easy to over or under water groundcovers in a soil mix that is loser than the sub soil. I'm very concerned about the health of the tree if the new soil covers very much of the root zone.  Roots extend well beyond the branch tips, so if the soil is just confined to a small circle under the tree, I OK with that.  If most of the root zone is covered with more than 1" of soil, it may decline over the next 3-5 years.  Jim