I have some concern that those roots are going to sap nutrients and moisture from your beds.

wyanette

I'd go with ruthieg's suggestion and deal with the little trees if they do appear -- cut them off at ground level -- since you don't have anywhere else but your yard to plant a garden.

It isn't the same problem, but I have a maple tree in the front yard that produces literally thousands of seeds in the spring, and they flutter everywhere in the breezes. I've pulled up hundreds of small tree seedlings from my flower beds and the garden, which is a good 100 feet away from that tree. Every day there are more. Fortunately, when they're small and the soil is damp, they're easy to pull up. Maybe yours will be as easy to snip off.

And Wayne's concern might be valid. I'd keep a close eye on keeping everything fertilized adequately to compensate for any nutrients the large roots may rob from your beds. Many people don't adequately fertilize their garden plants in mid- to late-season anyway, so it won't hurt to feed them again after they've taken off and grown some.

Well here is another comment...Wayne might be right...but my garden beds are under a big old tree with lots of roots etc...I have a fabulous garden and I don't fertilize anymore than is necessary to keep every thing growing...so like anney said...just keep things fertilized and healthy and you shouldn't have a problem. Truthfully my garden gets all day sun and I'm talking Texas sun if it wasn't for my tree so I am thrilled to have it as it protects from the late late afternoon heat of our Texas sun.

i would at least try to stay out from under the drip line of any of these trees,,,that will minimize the competion from the tree for nutrients,,,,,being cotton wood they r one of the worst for this suckering out problem,,,,maybe u could try a few different areas in your yard, but sounds like an uphill battle to me, removing the suckers as they appear is likely the best you can do.

I have the same problem in my front yard perennial bed with suckers from a silver poplar tree. Its maddening, I grub out tons of little trees every year and there are a few tree knees that I can't do anything about other than shear off the sprouts as they appear.

I garden in the only sunny place I have, a narrow strip (10 to 25 feet wide, 250 feet long) along a woodline of pine, maples, oak, etc. Last June I put in a small raised bed, about 16 inches deep, that I put on top of the ground without tilling. I grew decent but not spectacular pepper plants in it. This winter, I changed my garden plan, and needed to take apart my raised box. The tree roots had grown up through the ground and were so thick that after I took the sides off the box, I had a solid cube of compost mix that was so tight with roots I had to use a tiller to break it up, and even then it took a couple of hours to break down a 4' x 7' x 16" cube! It only took 6 months for that to happen!

My in-ground beds are a lot easier to manage. I completely remove all the roots when starting the bed (talk about work--that's what i was hoping to avoid when I made the raised bed), then I make sure to go along the tree sides of the beds each year with a shovel to cut through any new roots that have grown back in the bed.

I had the same problems with a lasagne bed I also tried last year. I made two bed side by side, one using lasagne methods, and the other tilled with the same quantities of compost added. I grew cukes in both beds, and the tilled beds significantly outperformed. At the end of the season I dug into both beds, and the lasagne bed was heavily rooted from underneath.

It my experience, growing near trees has made tilling necessary, regardless of what type of bed or soil improvement I'm using.

Cheers!
JP

Since I live in the LA area, I often refer to a garden book called Pat Welsh's Southern California Garden. In it she mentions a root-stopping landscape fabric to line compost piles.

Here's the website for the product. I've never used it, so I can't give any kind of recommendation, but you might want to look into it. My sympathy goes out to you; my neighbor planted a big shade tree right next to the property line, more or less ruining the future of my vegetable garden on my small suburban lot. I'm considering using this product in the future.

Here is a link that might be useful: Biobarrier

If your beds will be deep enough, another possibility might be placing a layer of the rubber barrier which is used in construction of tile shower pans (in home building) under the raised beds. This would block nutreints and water from the bed reaching the tree roots, except as runoff at the sides of the bed. You would need to allow for adequate drainage through seep holes along the sides of the beds at near the bottom. I might put a layer of gravel, landscaping fabric, then soilless mix or soil - over the rubber barrier.