I don't believe Voles care what the variety of plant roots they eat. I have had every type of tree as well as herbaceous plants killed by Voles. I'll go out and find a small tree leaning over or a plant pulled down into its hole and know exactly what is going on. I have planted Virginia Bluebells three times, only to have Voles destroy the entire bed. The last time I planted using permatil in the planting hole, but the little bas... still got them. The sharp edges of the stone did not deter them. Some people plant every thing in pots or in wire mess, but I have little time and too much other things to take care of.

Not shipping damage? what are you talking about? Even the seller agreed those trees were damaged during shipping. What I am talking about is the fact that the second photo shows mending tissue in the split. It didn't begin to heal in transit. I do not understand why some people make some strong statements about something they do not even know... Interesting.... What I find "interesting" is the fact that you say you took pictures to show the damage in your post and chose to upload photos of the "two best trees" for example. What do you expect...viewers to infer that other trees must have been damaged more badly? If they agreed to replace them. then good for you. I agree the shipping method sounds a bit iffy and there "IS" an issue with damage regardless of how it happened.

No and no. Do you have a solid surface under your soil? When tree roots hit a solid surface they will turn horizontal. Then when the roots expand, then expand in all directions which brings them to the surface. You might want to have a landscaper look at it to see if you can bring in more soil and still maintain proper drainage and have a nice appearance. You don't want to bury the tree trunk or the flaring of the roots, but you do want the distant roots underground.

Imagine a rectangle that is 100ft by 50ft and that is my back yard. The house represents the East side of this rectangle. Solid fencing on the South side and the North side and a 4ft post and rail on the 100ft West side. We have only one tree in that rectangle and it is a NOID Maple in the far Northwest corner just about on the lot line. It’s 20 yrs old and about 25ft tall. I have two neighbors to the West of this rectangle. The back of their property meets in the middle point of my yard. The neighbor to the Northwest has three mature Silver Maples that start about 10ft on the other side of my post and rail fence. The neighbor on the Southwest corner, has a pool and one mature Silver Maple that is less than 5 ft on the other side of my post and rail fence. Then there is the South side where that neighbor has a 60yr old Silver Maple that is double the size of the others. And that is less than 10ft away from my solid wood fence in the Southwest corner. If that isn’t bad enough, I have a neighbor to the north that has 6 mature Spruce trees and a mature London Plane tree all within 5ft of the solid fence on my north boundary all squeezed in to a 45 ft length. I do appreciate the privacy and I use the leaves. One neighbor even throws all his leaves into my yard, at my request. So I do benefit from them all, but …trying to grow a garden here is just a little bit of a challenge. I do seem to be able to do okay with the raised vegetable beds but it’s been awhile since I dug in any of them. I am going to dig them all this spring when I am replacing the frames and see if any of those tree roots are finding their way into my beds. The beds are positioned in the North side of the rectangle with no obstructions to the south of them. The west side of the vegetable space is about 15ft away from our Maple. Or maybe it is more, because it is not under the drip line. So the trio of silver maples is another 10ft beyond that. The North side of the vegetable space is about 20ft away from the neighbor’s spruces and LP tree. There’s just lawn to the south of it and a single car garage is to the east of it. I wanted to add more beds to the west side of the vegetable space, which would make that one bed about 5ft closer to the 3 silver maples and my maple. I have been mulling over the solutions suggested and I’ve been reading more in other threads and on google. The idea of digging the roots out in a trench although more work, at first sounds like a good solution, but getting 10 years of no roots is just not going to happen with a silver maple. I think I would be lucky if I got 2 years out of it. And that is not the worst of it. What would concern me the most, is that cutting roots of the trees, could cause the roots to react like they’ve been pruned and they grow back with a vengeance. The idea of putting down barriers under the beds with the layers of plastic and possibly hardware cloth is a reasonable solution. I was going to put hardware cloth on the bottom of the bed anyway, but I do garden organically and using that plastic at the bottom of my beds, just doesn’t sit well with me. And I feel like I would be creating a ‘container’ instead of a raised bed that has access to the subsoil. I think those are the only two solutions too. So, I am seriously considering adding blueberry bushes instead of another vegetable bed on that west side of the vegetable space. And to expand with more beds, I can go to the south and take up a little more lawn and I might be able to squeeze another bed to the east closer to the garage. This weekend is supposed to be in the 40s, I can get out there and take some measurements and see if I can do what I’m thinking I might be able to do. And I'll check the distance from my Maple to the west side of the vegetable space because I am guessing. toxcrusadr, thanks for the suggestion of turning my compost pile more often. I have had a ‘no turn’ pile and I do leave it there a long time. That could work for me. All of your input has made the situation a lot clearer to me. Thanks! :-)