Marianne's Response

Tree roots in my raised bed

Hi,
I have a row of emerald green arborvitae on my lot line. I put a 4×8 raised vegetable bed about three feet from it several years ago. I discovered my raised bed is almost completely full of arborvitae roots. I guess I should move the raised bed ( my vegetable garden did poorly as you can imagine) but I don’t want to kill the trees, It’s the 4 feet that is closest to the trees and goes away from them the 8 feet. Can I dig up the whole bed, do I dig the bed out in stages or is it too late to move the bed at all. The trees are more important than the one raised bed. I am on the south hill of Puyallup. Thank you

Posted by woltzen on October 30, 2018

Marianne's Response

Looks like we need to get to the root of this problem without harming the important hedge. The best thing for the arborvitae is to let them have the raised bed and try to find a new location for your vegetables. If you really want to move the entire raised bed do it early in the spring when the soil is moist and the arborvitae roots have time to recover from the shock of you cutting into them to remove the bed. Then I suggest you cover the injured root system with a mulch of compost and wood chips and pay attention to watering this coming summer during times of drought. My best guess is that you can dig up the entire bed and the hedge will survive as the evergreens are quite adaptable at making a new root system if moisture and good soil is nearby - something you discovered on your own. Good luck and Keep Growing, Marianne Binetti

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