Lilac tree runners in my raised beds ... help!

[Betty123]

Hi is there anyone that can give me some advice please?
I’ve got three raised beds in my garden, I neighbours have a lilac tree and it appears that runners have come under the ground and have come up inside my raised beds amongst the veggies.
Does anyone have any advice how to get rid of them I’ll have to wait to the end of the veggie season... but how can I stop them coming up again next year?

[nickdub]

the only real option to remove the roots is to dig them out.

In order to stop the roots completely you would have to dig down and put in some sort of barrier the roots cant get through - we used to use old corrugated iron sheets back in the day, but it is a lot of work getting a hole down far enough -workable minimum would be about 3'

[Scarlet]

I have a lilac that has suckers....they really are quite vigorous. Digging out is the only solution ( you'd need to keep doing it too!!) unless you can form a barrier as Nick has suggested. What a nuisance

[Thelma Sanders]

I had the same thing, in the end I gave up digging them out and put the shed where the roots were. I moved the veg beds to somewhere else in the garden.

[Small pumpkin]

I didn’t realise lilac did that ! I wanted some for my new garden.
I don’t now. Thank for the warning.

[lottie dolly]

yes they are bad for taking over,and grow so quick,got the same problem here,someone dug em out for me,but they come back,i am concidering painting them with something next year as they emerge,the roots are very strongto.

[Betty123]

Gosh that’s what I thought what a lot of work !
Thank you

[Babru]

I think it is worse if the lilac has been damaged in any way eg pruning it, or if it's in grass and you mow round it. The same can happen with members of the prunus family. I walked past a front garden recently, and there were suckers of something that looked like cherry coming up randomly all round the garden. It was a nice garden, well kept, and I felt so sorry for the owner, faced with either digging it all out or having nothing but a cherry thicket for a front garden.

[Betty123]

Funny you say that the neighbor has pruned the lilac !
Looks like my hubby will be digging them out come winter ��