On 10/11/2010 08:55, echinosum wrote:
gavj;904802 Wrote:
under the plum slate.

I do wonder about plum slate, whether it sometimes has something nasty
in it. I planted a row of fruit trees alongside a wall of my house,
that I then protected from weeds by covering with weed excluding fabric
and a mulch of plum slate. All the fruit trees died. Of course it is

Planted too deeply perhaps? Trees do need some air at the roots. You can
kill a tree by adding only a few inches of topsoil over the active root
area. The same might well apply to weed fabric and gravel. By excluding
the air you effectively suffocate the tree roots.

possible that the problem was something in the soil, as there was a
layer of coal dust in the soil along that wall. But sometimes i wonder
if it was the slate. But other people grow shrubs in just the fashion I
describe with a slate mulch, so it must normally be OK.

I specified plum slate for our village hall's low maintenance garden and
all the shrubs are growing fine in it. No privet though. I can't see
there is anything likely to be in it that would harm plants.

As someone else said it looks like collateral damage from a selective
herbicide spray. You have to hope the hedge recovers next year. It might
be relevant what sort of soil you are on, but in my experience privet is
pretty difficult to kill on sandy soil or heavy clay.

Regards,
Martin Brown