Welcome, Lesley!
That certainly could do it. I always feed both for surrounding bushes and for the veggies at the same time. You could keep the bay roots out of the veggie garden by putting a copper screen from the surface to 1/2 meter deep between the two, but that may require heavy pruning of the bay tree to keep it from going into shock.

Hi! Tugbrethil,

Thanks for your confirmation.

What I need to also know is how much do I prune the Bay. I know it will take a lot of pruning. If I cut it to one meter, will that automaticaly curtail the root spread, or do I also need the copper screen?

Lesley

Hi! Tugbrethil,

Thanks for your confirmation.

What I need to also know is how much do I prune the Bay. I know it will take a lot of pruning. If I cut it to one meter, will that automaticaly curtail the root spread, or do I also need the copper screen?

Lesley

Heavy pruning will curtail the root spread--but not necessarily in the direction you want it to! The idea with pruning is to reduce the number of leaves, to balance the number of roots that are cut off. I usually take off about 1/4-1/3 of the foliage, but more might be necessary if the bed is very close to the trunk of the tree.