A Raised Bed Around a Willow Tree

Building a Raised Bed for a Newly Planted Willow or Transplant

• Construct a raised-bed garden by building a frame or walls to retain the raised-bed soil. You may construct the walls from wood, stone, brick or garden edging. To construct the walls, dig a trench around the intended perimeter of the raised bed. To ensure adequate room for the willow tree’s roots, match the radius of the garden bed with the willow’s height at maturity; according to North Carolina State University, tree roots may grow outward in diameters three times the tree’s branch spread. Fill the completed walls of the raised garden with soil and plant the willow tree in the center of the garden so roots may grow outward into the raised garden bed.

Raised Beds Around Mature Willows

• You may create a raised bed around a mature willow by excavating to leave a mound of soil around the tree trunk. Do not disturb the soil inside the mature tree’s drip line; excavate a trench around the tree’s drip line and remove additional soil to smooth any rough slopes as necessary. Build retaining walls along the edges of the trench, against the raised mound of soil. Back fill inside the retaining walls and plant flowers and other small, ornamental plants over the tree roots. Plant sparingly and apply minimal layers of compost and mulch to prevent smothering the tree roots.

Faux Raised Beds

• Build garden-bed walls that stand at least 1 foot tall around the drip line of the willow tree; increase the height as desired. Build the garden walls from dry-stacked stone, brick and mortar, garden edging or wooden frames. Plant tall and dense flowers, shrubs and ornamental grasses to create the illusion of a raised garden bed. Even if it’s not a true raised-bed garden, you’ll enjoy the luscious garden anyway.

Considerations

• The root damage caused by adding a raised-bed garden over the existing root system often takes 5 to 10 years to begin showing signs in the aboveground growth of the tree. If you have already made a raised garden around the base of your tree, remove added soil to restore the ground to its original level immediately. If stress symptoms have already started to occur, you may not be able to save your tree from extensive damage. However, when raised beds are built before a tree is planted or replanted, the raised soil can protect tree roots, as raised garden-bed soil stays warmer than ground-level soil; this is a common method used to protect the roots of fruit and berry trees in orchards.