Q: We are planning ahead for next summer and have a garden space next to some chokecherry trees and a wooden fence that we cannot grow anything on. What do we need to do with it? It gets sunshine most of the day. Would raised beds work?

A: How big and old are the trees? Old trees have big root systems, and newer trees have smaller root systems. Are the tree roots preventing other plants from growing or is it lack of water or poor soil? Chokecherry trees are not usually looked upon as being good trees. Could you cut them down?

When you say you can't get anything to grow are you mainly talking about lawn grasses? Grasses need full sun, which you have, but they also need a lot of water that the existing trees may be taking out of the soil.

When you say garden space, are you looking at a vegetable garden or a flower garden? Vegetables require full sun, lots of water and a loose organic soil. Your space has full sun, in spite of the trees. The tree roots may be taking out so much water that the other plants can't grow. If the space is near a water source, then all you need to do is add good soil to the raised bed. It would be good to install a weed barrier cloth on the current soil before adding the new soil to keep the tree roots from growing up into the new soil.

As for a flower bed, there are plenty of plants that will grow in the sun or shade and some will grow in low soil moisture areas where tree roots are competing for water, but they would all do better in a good soil. They would all benefit from adding more soil over a weed barrier cloth.

In all three cases of lawns, vegetables and flowers, adding at least 6 inches of new soil would be good and 8 inches to a foot would be even better. For a lawn, add the soil in such a way that you don't change the water flow pattern across the yard to force the surface water towards your house or your neighbors.

For the flower and vegetable gardens, build the box for the raised beds using naturally decay resistant woods such as cedar, cypress, Osage orange or redwood. You can use a plastic deck board or a raised garden kit that uses recycled plastic for the boards. Cover the existing soil with the weed barrier cloth and then add the new topsoil.

If you want to keep the trees healthy, it would be best if you covered less than a quarter of their root system area with new soil. If you were to try to just add some new soil and rototill it in you would damage the tree roots. If you cover too much of the root system with too much soil, you could damage the roots. Don't add any soil on the tree trunks. Taper off to no new soil a few feet from the trunk. Also, don't pile any new soil on the fence.

Email questions to Jeff Rugg at info@greenerview.com. To find out more about Jeff Rugg and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.