Tree roots, yeeessss.....

So when I put my raised bed in the back lawn, 2 years ago, I laid it on an acrylic panel that's 3mm (1/8") thick to prevent root invasion from the nearby trees.  I wasn't so worried about the small bushes to left and right, but very concerned about the large decades-old coral tree behind.  I figured, for sure its roots would be throughout the lawn.



I carefully positioned the bed so the panel came out about a couple of inches on each side, figuring that I could then check for roots coming across the acrylic.  That first summer I checked every couple of months.  Consistently nothing at all, and I'd started to relax and only do it once a year, and feel that perhaps I'd been a tad paranoid.

Last week I did a tree root patrol.........and found over a dozen of the things, varying thicknesses -- up to the size of my little finger!!!  The big surprise was all but one or two were along the sides, so (I assume) from the bushes not the big tree.

I have no idea how long they've been benefitting from my compost -- could have been during last growing season for all I know -- but am now very glad I put the panel in!  It cost around $100 from memory and meant that I had to line the bed with weedmat to stop MM erosion (which has had its own drawbacks), but oh my goodness I'm glad it's there!

Obviously, I'm going to have to go back to more frequent tree root patrols, now that the bed has been discovered.......

Interesting but not necessarily related but I found out the hard way when I had some external plumbing installed.  Tree roots and shrubs to a lesser degree travel a serious distance to sop up the manna!  

Sucks though!

I remember when I was a kid we had a weeping willow in the front yard and its roots had actually invaded the water pipes which I believe were concrete??? (could be wrong about that, though)  I'm trying to tell myself that willows are particularly bad (good?) at invasions and my tree and bushes wouldn't be capable of working their way through an acrylic panel.  Guess I'll find out next summer when I make the planned move to wicking beds on the patio!

Tree and shrub roots! Oh, yes, I know them well. That's why we raised all of the beds off the ground in 2014.