The message
from "endymion" contains these words:

I wonder if someone could help me. I have a Rowen tree an apple
tree and
a beech tree ( not a hedge) in my garden. How deeply do these kinds of
trees
root? They are about twenty years old.

None is deep.

Apples tend to spread horizontally to about the diameter of the canopy.

Rowans can go looking for nourishment in any direction, but on good soil
tend to stay close to mum.

Beech roots are horizontal too, and if you attach a stout rope to the
top of one and dig a three foot deep trench round a beech of any size,
half a dozen men pulling on the rope will almost certainly topple it.

My other half is wondering if they have blocked out land drains as it seems
some silly previous owner may have planted them directly cross the land
drain area. he wants to take them down. They are substantial trees and I
would prefer not to up heave them unless necessary.

Are you having wet-patch or flooding problems? It seems unlikely.

The trees whic really hooter drains are willows and poplars. Willow
roots especially will grow up to a quarter of a mile to find water. If a
willow or a poplar finds a working drain, it can soon fill it with roots
and clog it with root-hairs.

The land drains may have just slowed down because of the very cold weather
and the soggy ground generally but we cant be sure until it stops raining
rivers here.

Land drains will only take water away if it percolates down to them.

Generally, done properly, trenches are dug and the pipes laid. Then,
shingle is poured in to cover the pipes, and the spoil replaced.

(Much) older drains were done in a similar way, but instead of pipes,
bunfles of willow or birch twigs were laid, and then covered. I've seen
bush drains (on my smallholding) working, and these must have been more
than forty years old - possibly a *LOT* more.

--
Tony
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/