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#1
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Tree roots and walls
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. |
#2
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Tree roots and walls
"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 |
#3
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Tree roots and walls
"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. |
#4
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Tree roots and walls
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. |
#5
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Tree roots and walls
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 |
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