Debbie Sauerteig

I have no real knowledge of Bay Trees but from googling, I found this excellent link from the UK. Read especially the paragraph entitled "BAY TREE CARE", which seems to be all about this topic exactly!
http://www.gardenfocused.co.uk/herbs/bay-tree.php

Hope it helps!

What will happen if a bee or two gets caught overnight in our small 6x8 foot greenhouse?

David, I didn't know that you could graft the lilac onto privet. Very interesting (and do-able!) I had learnt that the French hybrids were less invasive than these old ones that were brought to the "New World" by pioneering families.
My problem is the growth rate and tenacity of the roots. Any suggestions?

Michelle, thank you for replying.
Cutting grass keeps the new-found lilac stems short, but they live on. These roots have gone down a hill, around a pond, and back up the hill on the other side... all underground! We have had to pull amazingly tough roots out for every garden we have created. Hard work. But it must be done or else the gardens simply become a new patch of lilac!

We moved here (Barrie, Ontario, Canada) 4 years ago.
In those 4 years we have been yanking out lilac roots from our entire backyard. I even began to wonder if we were on some old homestead whose house had been surrounded by lilacs. (We aren't. We are built on the remains of a small sand & gravel pit, created in the 50-60s to extend the highway 400 further north.)
There is one lilac bush, Syringa vulgaris, near the back fence. We live on a hill, and it is planted just over the crest of our little plateau, on the west side.

WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT THESE INTERMINABLE ROOTS?
They pop up everywhere. In the veggie garden, along pathways, in pathways, in well-trodden areas, in little-used areas... and in our compost bins. arg.

Any and all suggestions welcomed.
(We can't have animals, so rooting by animals is not a do-able thing here.)

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts.
Debbie

There are no-mow or little mow lawns out there.
Here is one from my region:
http://www.wildflowerfarm.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=20
So I would suggest either this, or moss, whichever would work for you and your babies.

Did you see this thread about using fungal network to clean water passing onto your property?
https://permies.com/t/32011/urban/abundant-urban-waste-stream-pollution
Michael wrote and showed images of how this works.

Hmmm... Cattails is such a great suggestions, but in fact, other than when we get rain, this is actually a dry location. Dry and sandy loam. I think I'll research into grasses and other monocots. Thanks!

I have bookmarked this thread on my computer.
I'm using Michael's suggestion of woodchips to clean runoff water from my neighbour's yard. His downspout brings water (yay!) into our yard but, unfortunately, it also brings his "weed & feed" from his lawn. That water has done damage to my asparagus so I have transplanted it to a safer location.

What can I plant over top of the water-cleaning "filter" that won't in the meantime get damaged? I'd love to hear some suggestions.
The space is about 8 inches wide and about 10 feet long. It is beside our north fence, near our deck and is beside the walkway (presently still grass) from the front yard to the back yard. It gets sun from about 11am to about 3pm. We are in Canada hardiness zone 5, in a humid cold temperature climate.

My biggy problem (and I'm not computer savvy in any way, but neither are many of us, shall we say, "older" folk) is that when I've finished reading down through the thread of interest, that it is much harder, requiring almost restarting, to get back to the list of other threads.
Here's what I mean. I found this thread in growies --> urban --> "a hypothetical question on contamination". I read through it. I didn't feel any need to comment, but it reminded me of a different thread about treating/cleaning your soil that I had read before. Well! To find it, I must go back to growies --> urban --> and look a long time to find the page I had been on before which was "The abundant urban waste stream - how to go from pollution to production".

With the old system, I would've only needed to look to the top and click on the "urban" , whereupon the list of threads pops up with the ones I have read highlighted. Much easier to find what I had previously read!