The ground surface behind the 5 foot high stone wall in the back of
garden is about 5 foot higher than my garden surface. The wall was built
on a 3 or 4 inch foundation of broken stones. There was no cement put
into the foundation.

Tree roots from the ground behind the wall (there's a line of quick
growing conifers about 4 foot behind the wall, and there's a Finish
White Beam and a tall Poplar tree) have squeezed under the foundation
and then proceeded to fan out over the surface of my lawn and damaged
it.

Below about 4 or 5 inch of the ground surface I have sandy stony ground.

I'm redoing the lawn and the wall. I'm going to keep the old wall in
place, and put a brick wall in front of it with a proper cemented
foundation. This new wall will be spaced about 2 inch away from the old
wall.

I've got some pavement flags (slabs) 2 goot by 2.5 foot, 2 inch thick.
I'm going to put them in the ground adjacent to the base of the old
wall, with about 6 inch sticking up above ground surface. So, the flags
will penetrate 1.5 foot below my ground surface just in front of the old
wall. Then I'll fill the 2 inch gap between the walls with stones.

Okay, is this going to divert any roots downwards from under the old
wall, into the sandy rocky soil and stop roots growing on the surface of
my lawn? TIA.

"Rich" wrote in message
...
| The ground surface behind the 5 foot high stone wall in the back of
| garden is about 5 foot higher than my garden surface. The wall was built
| on a 3 or 4 inch foundation of broken stones. There was no cement put
| into the foundation.
|
| Tree roots from the ground behind the wall (there's a line of quick
| growing conifers about 4 foot behind the wall, and there's a Finish
| White Beam and a tall Poplar tree) have squeezed under the foundation
| and then proceeded to fan out over the surface of my lawn and damaged
| it.
|
| Below about 4 or 5 inch of the ground surface I have sandy stony ground.
|
| I'm redoing the lawn and the wall. I'm going to keep the old wall in
| place, and put a brick wall in front of it with a proper cemented
| foundation. This new wall will be spaced about 2 inch away from the old
| wall.
|
| I've got some pavement flags (slabs) 2 goot by 2.5 foot, 2 inch thick.
| I'm going to put them in the ground adjacent to the base of the old
| wall, with about 6 inch sticking up above ground surface. So, the flags
| will penetrate 1.5 foot below my ground surface just in front of the old
| wall. Then I'll fill the 2 inch gap between the walls with stones.
|
| Okay, is this going to divert any roots downwards from under the old
| wall, into the sandy rocky soil and stop roots growing on the surface of
| my lawn? TIA.
|

Hmmm. Sounds a good idea, as I thought about 15 years ago. There are a load
of Forsythia (I think) bushes outside my garden, so I did exactly what you
have in mind, sinking 2'x2'x2" slabs vertically across the bottom of my
garden. Complete and utter waste of time. I managed to keep up with the
roots that came between the slabs, but the other day, the dog, during one of
her open cast mining exercises on the lawn, managed to dig up one rather
large root (almost 1" dia) that had migrated under the slabs and back up to
the surface within 2' of the fence. Sub-surface under the lawn is ironstone
brash. I guess you're on a hiding to nothing there.

jim, Northampton

Rich wrote:
The ground surface behind the 5 foot high stone wall in the back of
garden is about 5 foot higher than my garden surface. The wall was built
on a 3 or 4 inch foundation of broken stones. There was no cement put
into the foundation.

Tree roots from the ground behind the wall (there's a line of quick
growing conifers about 4 foot behind the wall, and there's a Finish
White Beam and a tall Poplar tree) have squeezed under the foundation
and then proceeded to fan out over the surface of my lawn and damaged it.

Below about 4 or 5 inch of the ground surface I have sandy stony ground.

I'm redoing the lawn and the wall. I'm going to keep the old wall in
place, and put a brick wall in front of it with a proper cemented
foundation. This new wall will be spaced about 2 inch away from the old
wall.

I've got some pavement flags (slabs) 2 goot by 2.5 foot, 2 inch thick.
I'm going to put them in the ground adjacent to the base of the old
wall, with about 6 inch sticking up above ground surface. So, the flags
will penetrate 1.5 foot below my ground surface just in front of the old
wall. Then I'll fill the 2 inch gap between the walls with stones.

Okay, is this going to divert any roots downwards from under the old
wall, into the sandy rocky soil and stop roots growing on the surface of
my lawn? TIA.


Hmm..... Quite challenging; sounds like your trees are busily heaving
your 5' earth retaining wall out of their way, this probably will get
worse as time slips by. You might find that that your new wall section
might start going the way of the old sooner, rather than later

The cheapest permanent solution might well be to eliminate the wall
altogether by terracing out the 5' drop in levels - if you have got the
space and energy so to do.

Another solution could be to take out the wall and replace it with a
line of gabions filled with the stone salvaged from the wall + some
bought in rock. Quit a costly solution, a standard 1x1x1 metre basket is
about £40 and needs about a tonne of rock to fill it, but the benefit is
a very robust free-draing revetment with a very dramatic planting
evironment for alpines and climbers. Hard work but alot of fun to do and
the results can look good and likely to be tree root proof for decades.

Good luck

rjbl

"jbm" wrote in message
...

"Rich" wrote in message
...
| The ground surface behind the 5 foot high stone wall in the back of
| garden is about 5 foot higher than my garden surface. The wall was
built
| on a 3 or 4 inch foundation of broken stones. There was no cement
put
| into the foundation.
|
| Tree roots from the ground behind the wall (there's a line of quick
| growing conifers about 4 foot behind the wall, and there's a Finish
| White Beam and a tall Poplar tree) have squeezed under the
foundation
| and then proceeded to fan out over the surface of my lawn and
damaged
| it.
|
| Below about 4 or 5 inch of the ground surface I have sandy stony
ground.
|
| I'm redoing the lawn and the wall. I'm going to keep the old wall in
| place, and put a brick wall in front of it with a proper cemented
| foundation. This new wall will be spaced about 2 inch away from the
old
| wall.
|
| I've got some pavement flags (slabs) 2 goot by 2.5 foot, 2 inch
thick.
| I'm going to put them in the ground adjacent to the base of the old
| wall, with about 6 inch sticking up above ground surface. So, the
flags
| will penetrate 1.5 foot below my ground surface just in front of the
old
| wall. Then I'll fill the 2 inch gap between the walls with stones.
|
| Okay, is this going to divert any roots downwards from under the old
| wall, into the sandy rocky soil and stop roots growing on the
surface of
| my lawn? TIA.
|

Hmmm. Sounds a good idea, as I thought about 15 years ago. There are a
load
of Forsythia (I think) bushes outside my garden, so I did exactly what
you
have in mind, sinking 2'x2'x2" slabs vertically across the bottom of
my
garden. Complete and utter waste of time. I managed to keep up with
the
roots that came between the slabs, but the other day, the dog, during
one of
her open cast mining exercises on the lawn, managed to dig up one
rather
large root (almost 1" dia) that had migrated under the slabs and back
up to
the surface within 2' of the fence. Sub-surface under the lawn is
ironstone
brash. I guess you're on a hiding to nothing there.

jim, Northampton

Hi. well, I haven't really much choice to put the slabs in and see what
happens. :c)

It's a brute-force method, maybe there are more suptle ways to keep the
roots from coming up 2 foot from the slabs and spreading along the
surface.

Like deception (ingenious watering to fool). Guiding tubes. Whatever.

There ought to be some research reports into this kind of thing - I
suppose.

I said:

There ought to be some research reports into this kind of thing - I
suppose.

Root barriers, that's the thing.

Well, I found this:

http://www.profengineering.com/root.htm

http://www.ewburrownursery.co.uk/dow...t_Barriers.pdf

http://best4garden.co.uk/page/15

http://www.hy-tex.co.uk/ht_geo_rb.html

http://www.boddingtons-ltd.com/fores...ot-barrier.htm

http://www.wreford.co.uk/root_barrier/

http://www.arbortech.co.uk/products/barrier.shtml

Etc.

I think depth of barrier might be quite key. Perhaps I need a 30" deep
barrier. That means laying flags upwards, not sideways.

Root barriers seem to have some hope of working.