Hi, I have a whole yard of fruit trees including fig and avocado trees. I made a deep bed planter with 2 stackable slatted compost bin frames (no tops of bottoms). The bins are stacked directly on the ground. 1. Make a layer of brick on the ground. 2. Place a tub on the brick. It has the same features as the earthbox: Overflow holes, input pipe, support for the platform where soil is piled onto. In addition include 4-5 terry cloth strips to wick up the water from the tub and have them ready to come up vertically through the soil. Thread a black tubing pipe (1/4-1/2 in diameter) from the bottom of the tub and through one overflow hole to the outside of the slatted planter. Test the overflow system: Fill the tub water reservoir through the input pipe and check to see that the black tubing is removing excess water from the tub when it is full. The water should be dripping out through the black tubing and be visible from the outside of the planter. A small amount of water might spill over the tub onto the bricks and then to the ground where the tree roots are. 3. Make a platform around the tub to create a 2nd air layer. This platform will have a grid (cut from chicken wire) over it and the grid will be lined with landscape cloth. The height of the grid will be the same height as the platform inside the earthbox type tub. Use lengths of 4-5 in drainage pipe laid down horizontally or in short segments and placed vertically as shown in the picture. 4. Carefully shovel soil into the planter and fill all void spaces. 5. Plant the vegetables and mulch heavily with redwood compost. This post was edited by jyn510 on Sun, May 11, 14 at 2:40

the roots will be a problem.. in a few decades ... the falling fruit will make them ugly ... stain them.. ferment .. and you will have stoned birds flying into windows ... and while eating the ones off the tree .. dive bombing your stuff with purple poops .... other than that.. its a wonderful tree.. lol ... i am not aware of any soil issues .. i have one on 5 acres.. that seems about right... i had one a 2/3 of an acres... that was tight ... if you are in limited suburbia.. you can do a lot better ... ken ps: did i mention the fruit flies.. after mashing the fruit with the riding lawnmower ... actually i dont mow under there in july/august/sept ... its a mess ... pps: the boy was maybe 3 ... comes up to the house.. with purple feet to the ankles.. his belly all smeared purple.. and from ear to ear.. smeared in purple ... i say to him.. have you been eating the mulberries.... [of which i taught him that was OK ].. and he looks me dead in the eye and says .. NO!!!!! ... its been all down hill since then.. he is 12 now.. and still lying to me... lol ... and still eating mulberries ...

Caroline, I had plantings under an ancient Maple tree. What I did was to dig as much dirt out from between the roots as I could. Then I put my plants in the hole and mixed my soil with compost and then filled back in around the plant. When I was finished planting I put a couple inches of shredded mulch over all. The trees roots will always find their way back up to the top...they have to because they need oxygen. But your plants will fill out and disguise the roots for the most part. You will have to water more frequently because the tree will take everything it can get. The mulch will help to retain water for the plants. The reason that you can't put several inches of dirt over the top of all the roots is because the tree will never be able to force it's roots back up to the top fast enough and it will die from lack of oxygen. A couple of inches of soil won't be so bad in my opinion, especially if you're careful to add plenty of compost so the soil is loose and easily allows water and oxygen to pass through. I've done it several times and never killed a tree. Most times I did it so I could reseed grass. In general when most folks talk about putting dirt around a tree their basically saying don't build a retaining wall a foot or two tall and fill it with soil, that's sudden death for sure. I can only tell you what I have done. Others may disagree. I hope this helps you. MeMo

Hi Jo and DD, Thanks for popping in. DD, Sorry you lost yout LS. I don't think it's that slow if it doesn't compete with tree roots and gets plenty of water. Jo, that's an excellent choice. The reverse variegation would be awseome with LS but I already have it planted elsewhere and it's doing well, so I don't want to move it. BTW, do you have Queen Josephine? Everytime I see it in my garden, I think of you now. HaHa! In a nice way.