Ken -- ha ha! It's a joke related to a family name! My next door neighbor has a pond in her front yard. I'm not talking like a swimming pool, but not tiny like the itty bitty kits at home depot. Maybe something with an area the size of a king sized bed, only not rectangular. Our front yard is up on a hill, with house up and away from the sidewalk. It's not a yard that anyone would wander into. To get into the yard, they would have to climb up through a prickly hill of juniper! Or leap up over a 3 foot stone wall. (Or be an invited guest, parked in the driveway up near the house.) I would be digging by hand. Probably 2 to 3 feet max depth for fish to hide, with shallower shelf ledges around edges. Neighbor has a large oak in her yard -- properties are sort of on a hill and terraced, i.e. her yard is 3 feet higher than mine with a stone wall in between us. (My yard is stepped down -- the stone wall is a nice backdrop for my plants.) So anyway, her tree is about 12 feet away from pond site and up higher than my ground level. My tree is a big black gum. Pond site is probably 10 feet away from trunk. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Hmm, now I think I'm a little confused. While I agree just adding mulch around my sunken bushes would be a lot easier, Mike indicated that it would probably encourage rooting of the buried sprouts and leave me with more than one bush in the hole. While several of my older (grafted) roses seem to have self-rooted themselves over the years with no ill-effect, they tended to do it some distance from the original roots whereas my problem plants are just 1-year old own-root babies (though it is hard to call Abe Darby a baby when he is waving his massive shoots around). Seeing as I'm in LA where keeping plants moist is more of a problem than drainage, I don't mind my roots being covered by quite a bit of mulch, but we're talking over a foot here! Of course after a week of rain and mist -- when moving would have been less fraught -- we're now having hot dry windy weather so I'll probably hold off a little bit in any case (in the event someone else wants to weigh in!) I am so grateful for this forum and the knowledgeable people willing to share their experience. Thanks to you all.

I have six of the little devils I want to plant behind our fence, but wish to install a barrier as well. Lois Hole reccommends a minimum depth of 18". I've heard the metal type with no joints is best (as the roots will find their way through any opening). I've also heard of planting them in 24" bottomless pots, leaving 2" above the ground. You have to watch for roots trying to go over the wall and snip flowers before you have seed. I think I should have my head examined for even wanting to plant this stuff, but the varigated is pretty and I want to have something other than quack grass against the new white chain link fence, and give the other neighbor's an alternative to the ever-popular dandelion bouquets. :) Hope to hear of an easier method... am I dreaming?

I have no direct experience with DeepRoot (which seems to be a physical barrier only system) but do with Biobarrier. The latter combines a physical barrier with a root inhibiting chemical release system. Biobarrier does work, but the installation has to be precise and - this would be true of DeepRoot as well - involves a great deal of digging. It's not clear from the post if the barrier has to be 60 feet long or 14 feet long plus some extra to go around the corners, but in either case it's back breaking labor unless there is access for a machine excavator. I believe Biobarrier is 3 or 4 feet wide, so that's about the depth you'd need for that product. How long either system would protect your yard from the roots of mature trees, especially a highly invasive species like poplar, is an open question. Only you can decide if it's worth doing or if containers would be a better option.