I bought a house with three mature Swedish columnar aspen / Populus tremula erecta 20-30' from the house. I tried building a raised bed for vegetables about 10 feet away; it was filled with loofah-like roots within three months, and nothing would grow in it. Now, there are aspen suckers coming up in the bed nearest the house, which is completely surrounded by a concrete walk, and the perennials I have planted there are stunted! Does this tree have allelopathic roots, or is it simply strangling other plant growth? If I remove the aspen roots from the bed near the house and put in a root barrier, do I need to replace the soil before replanting?
