Hello all,

I moved to a house in San Antonio a few months ago.
This house has in the backyard two tall trees and
several small tree/bushes, (photinia and others).
Many of them have big and long roots running on
top of the soil.

Have you seen this? What can I do about it?

Regards,
Art

In article .com,
"Art" wrote:

Hello all,

I moved to a house in San Antonio a few months ago.
This house has in the backyard two tall trees and
several small tree/bushes, (photinia and others).
Many of them have big and long roots running on
top of the soil.

Have you seen this? What can I do about it?

Regards,
Art


A lot of trees will have roots across the top of the soil...
Why do you care? :-) It's not hurting the trees.

If you are concerned about looks and tripping over them, just bring in a
truckload of good soil and re-bury them. Build a circular rock border to
hold the dirt and plant a shade garden.

That's what I'd do anyway?
--
Peace, Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." -Jack Nicholson

A lot of trees will have roots across the top of the soil...
Why do you care? :-) It's not hurting the trees.

If you are concerned about looks and tripping over them, just bring
in a truckload of good soil and re-bury them. Build a circular rock
border to hold the dirt and plant a shade garden.

That's what I'd do anyway?

If you bury the roots very deep, you'll kill the tree. Someone who knows
please chime in, but I believe you shouldn't add more than one or two inches
of soil.

In article ,
"Cindy" wrote:

A lot of trees will have roots across the top of the soil...
Why do you care? :-) It's not hurting the trees.

If you are concerned about looks and tripping over them, just bring
in a truckload of good soil and re-bury them. Build a circular rock
border to hold the dirt and plant a shade garden.

That's what I'd do anyway?

If you bury the roots very deep, you'll kill the tree. Someone who knows
please chime in, but I believe you shouldn't add more than one or two inches
of soil.




Probably best to talk to a tree surgeon...

I built a 6" wall around my big hackberry about 10 years ago, but it
only extends out about 24" from the tree. The tree appears to still be
fine, but it gets regular watering too due to the shade garden being
there.
--
Peace, Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." -Jack Nicholson

"Art" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello all,

I moved to a house in San Antonio a few months ago.
This house has in the backyard two tall trees and
several small tree/bushes, (photinia and others).
Many of them have big and long roots running on
top of the soil.

Have you seen this? What can I do about it?

Regards,
Art


Roots are looking for surface water. Pecan trees in the area are probably
the best example of root surface travelers.

Read up on the local hill country juniper tree and its root structure and
branch fall that feeds it almost all precipitation water. Water scrooge if
you will. Weather guys think they're cedars per that's their reference for
cedar pollen count.
--
Jonny

Art wrote:
Hello all,

I moved to a house in San Antonio a few months ago.
This house has in the backyard two tall trees and
several small tree/bushes, (photinia and others).
Many of them have big and long roots running on
top of the soil.

Have you seen this? What can I do about it?

Regards,
Art

My neighborhood has a bunch of arizona river ash that were planted in
1982 as a quick growing contractor tree. They started pushing roots to
the surface about 15 years ago and haven't stopped since. Some of my
neighbors have also had them get into their sewer lines since they seek
water sources. You need to determine the species to help figure out if
your stuff is worth keeping around. Several neighbors have had tree
chopping parties and replaced them with more valueable and attractive
specimens.

If you have an erosion problem that is exposing the roots I've had great
luck in terracing my yard tp prevent it.

I was surprised to see so many roots since in the past citiess I
have lived did not have them (at least in the bushes). I do remember
in big trees like pecans.

One reason not to have them is because I hit one with the lawn
mower and it got damaged. I thought changing the blade would
fix it, but it had a lot of vibration after I installed a new blade.
Turns out that the shaft is bent also.

I then had to open the engine and I was surprised to see that this
Briggs&stratton engine does not have any protection for this type
of accident. The full crankshaft is one piece and its directly
attached to the blade.

I ended up buying another lawn mower, but observed that electric
mowers have a plastic part to attach the blade to the shaft. So in this

kind of accident the plastic part will break protecting the motor.
Changing the plastic part is probably easy and not too expensive
as changing the crankshaft to the engine. The new mower that I bought
has probably the same problem. It has a smaller Honda engine but
the shaft is attached to the blade with a metal piece. The blade looks
thiner and the engine is lighter, so I hope is a bit more resistant.

So, coming back to the roots issue. Probably two factors are
coming into effect, the previous owner(s) were watering only
superficially, or there are too many rocks in the soil. I'll try to put

some extra dirt if possible.

Thanks and regards,
Art

On Thu, 16 Feb 2006 19:27:41 GMT, "Cindy" wrote:


A lot of trees will have roots across the top of the soil...
Why do you care? :-) It's not hurting the trees.

If you are concerned about looks and tripping over them, just bring
in a truckload of good soil and re-bury them. Build a circular rock
border to hold the dirt and plant a shade garden.

That's what I'd do anyway?

If you bury the roots very deep, you'll kill the tree. Someone who knows
please chime in, but I believe you shouldn't add more than one or two inches
of soil.



Actually, no soil should ever be put on top of surface roots at all.
The best one can do is to rough up the soil by hand and either plant
ground cover or install a bed of mulch no thicker than two inches.
Those surface roots are there to exchange gasses and serve a very
important function.