[lucywil]

We have grass paths down the sides which gives hubby chance to use his strimmer but the paths across the plot are either slabs (usually from free cycle or friends, never bought) or scaffolding boards

[Schubunny]

That will indeed involve quite a lot of grass mowing.  Bear in mind that trees don't like grass within about a metre of their trunks though.

Sorry to hijack. I have several trees on my plot, all have a lot of grass round the base, they do fruit quite well even though they aren't massively mature, apart from one which is quite mature and fruits heavily. Should I try to remove the grass or am I likely to just cause more problems than if I just leave it?

Thanks, and sorry to OP for hijacking!

[azubah]

Seems to me that if your trees are doing well that it might be best to leave them as they are. If you remove the grass you might disturb shallow roots, and have to walk on bare muddy soil instead of clean grass to pick the fruit.

[Schubunny]

Seems to me that if your trees are doing well that it might be best to leave them as they are. If you remove the grass you might disturb shallow roots, and have to walk on bare muddy soil instead of clean grass to pick the fruit.

Thanks.