Planting Pigmy Barberry Bushes

Question

I want to plant a ring of Pigmy Barberry bushes around my house, We have no eves on our round house, so we have a drain pile that runs underground around the house under the eves, with gravel over it. We want to plant the bushes just outside the fall of the water off the roof, and into the dirt of the yard, but we don’t want their roots to grow into the drain. How far will be have to plant the bushes so they say out of the drain pile? Thanks!

Answer 1

Each plant produces a spread of 3-4 feet when full sized. Most trees and shrubs produce root systems that are 2 to 4 times wider than the aboveground spread depending on conditions, so that would be 6 to 16 feet. But the more distant roots are likely to be less damaging and barberry roots are shallow and not known to be damaging to pipes. So Ithink 6-8 feet would be safe.