HELP! we have a shade garden that is surrounding a half dozen well established trees. whenever we plant a new perennial, we spend much time amending and turning over the soil. i am confident that when that plant goes in, the soil is like gold! one season later, if for some reason i dog in that area...there are (and this is NO exaggeration!) millions of spidery roots totally surrounding the plant and THICK throughout the soil. tonight i spent 2 hours hacking and chopping a 2' x 3 ' area to clear these monsters and literally ripping them from the root balls of my plants.

a 4" pot size plant has a 10" mass of this junk surrounding it and every square inch of soil. WHYwhat am i doing wrong and what should i be doing? thanks everyone! sue