I have two wonderful Monkey Trees about 16 feet tall. They are spaced at about 20'. I have 8' weed free circles surrounding them, and I am looking for suggestions for a good ground cover to place at the base of the trees. I have always kept the bases free of weeds, but it is a chore I've grown tired of. I really like the crawling vine look, but don't want to harm the trees with being strangled by invasive vines. Any ideas welcome.
As this is a full-sized tree in time these will merge. Meanwhile, something garden-worthy that also occurs with the tree in its habitat could be fun. Maybe search the web with strings like araucaria araucana ecology or araucaria araucana habitat to see what other plants are mentioned.
Most of the photos of their natural habitat show bare stony soil ;-) Maybe Berberis buxifolia might work. The only difficulty is that any weeds strong enough to get through it will be difficult to remove because of the thorns on the barberry.
