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Too many tree roots! Help!

kathryn.barkerkathryn.barker Posts: 6
in Garden design
Hi all, relative newbie to gardening and need lots of your wonderful advice please. 

We recently bought our (hopefully) forever home and have started to look at garden ideas.  We have several large trees (beautiful) but a garden full of roots, some old, some new.  We’ve started to dig over the beds to start planting but we hit roots more often than not.  Our last garden was a new build plot so this is a new problem for us. Any ideas as to how to start to cultivate more flowerbeds? Do we need to put in raised beds or can we work around the roots? All the beds would get full sunshine at some point during the day. Thank you in advance for your wise words! 

Posts

  • K67K67 Posts: 2,506
    edited May 2020
    As always a photo or 3 helps and what  trees they are.
    How big are the trees in relation to your garden? 
    The smaller fibrous type roots are the trees most needed roots and they are near the surface as they need to breathe so putting a load of soil on top might not be a good idea.
    Larger thicker roots are what keeps a tree stable but you can usually remove some of these.
    Root removal is in relation to the trees girth so for a 3ft  diameter trunk you could remove roots 9 to 15ft away.
    You arent going to get many plants growing under the tree when in leaf so it will be spring bulbs etc so fairly easy to plant in amongst the roots.
    There is a post on here for planting in shallow soil that might help you.
  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 8,328
    @K67 - the OP has included photos in her other posting of this question
    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • amancalledgeorgeamancalledgeorge Posts: 2,736
    It's a duplicate post here with photos:  https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/1040577/tree-roots-in-our-new-garden-help#latest @K67
    To Plant a Garden is to Believe in Tomorrow
  • berginjim5berginjim5 Posts: 46
    K67 said:
    As always a photo or 3 helps and what  trees they are.
    How big are the trees in relation to your garden? 
    The smaller fibrous type roots are the trees most needed roots and they are near the surface as they need to breathe so putting a load of soil on top might not be a good idea.
    Larger thicker roots are what keeps a tree stable but you can usually remove some of these.
    Root removal is in relation to the trees girth so for a 3ft  diameter trunk you could remove roots 9 to 15ft away.
    You arent going to get many plants growing under the tree when in leaf so it will be spring bulbs etc so fairly easy to plant in amongst the roots.
    There is a post on here for planting in shallow soil that might help you.
    its not good practice to remove any of the trees main root system and the feed roots will only be covered in a small area by raised beds , there are many more feed roots for the tree to survive 
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