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Category: Productive Backyard | Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 2:22 pm

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This year we decided to expand our gardening area and added four little raised beds to our garden. They are not identical in size since my husband built them from the wooden pallets and he tried to salvage as much wood as he could before throwing them in trash. They turned out to be really cute and each box has its own personality (imo) :D .

We also tilled the soil in our old raised beds and found that the neighbor's tree has invaded them completely yet again! the roots itself are quite thick but they extend to fine root system that has matted entire beds. The whole Saturday was gone in digging that fine mesh of roots out and then filling the beds with new soil/compost. We dug out two big trash bag full of roots out of our three 8'x4' raised beds. So, this year my husband dug a trench along the fence line behind our garden area and cut the main roots that were invading our garden. Next season we will re-dig the trench again and cut all the roots that try to sneak back in, hope this will save us all the labor involve in removing the roots from each bed individually. My husband also build some vertical trellises for the beans/cucumber wines and I am super pleased with the results. Now we have to put up a rabbit/groundhog fence and our veggie garden should be safe from under and over the soil invaders and ready to produce!
I also transplanted the spinach seedlings outside in the little area right behind the the house mostly shady. Very tiring weekend but hopeful for a successful new beginning for my garden this year.


Spinach transplants ( photo / image / picture from Green Fingers's Garden )






( photo / image / picture from Green Fingers's Garden )






( photo / image / picture from Green Fingers's Garden )






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Sjoerd wrote on Mon Apr 14, 2014 3:42 pm:

Things are looking good there, GF.
Great-looking raised beds.

You know that trench that you spoke of--if it is good and deep and a bit wide (like a spade and a half wide)...I would leave it open all year long. That way when the neighbour's tree roots try and invade they will come to open air and sunshine and the probing tips will stop and die before going further.

It may sound crazy, but I do this with bamboo and some grass plants to keep them from becoming too invasive, and it works for me.

If the trench is over by the fence perhaps it will be out of the way so that no one would step into it.

BTW--what kind of tree is that anyway?

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Green Fingers wrote on Mon Apr 14, 2014 6:13 pm:

Thank you Sjoerd for your much appreciated advice! we were planning on filling the trench with couple of inches of mulch thinking that if we left it open the roots might go further deep and invade again. But I guess it makes sense to leave it as is since it is at the very end of the garden plus it will be easy to dig further deep to check just in case!
I do not know about the tree, all I know is its leaves turn yellow in fall and right now it had tiny red bloom buds with are fallen all over in our garden due to the wind. Hope your method works of us too and the open air and sunshine does the trick! Thanks again.

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