How you prepare your soil depends on what kind of soil you have. If you have heavy clay, I'd dig deep, much deeper than the plant will go in a coulple years and loosen the soil. I wouldn't amend, though I would plant the trees high (clay soils tend to drain poorly and also can pool holding water and drowning roots). Personally I do little in the way of preparation this time of year, I do compost and pile my beds high with leaves in the fall. I add leaf mould (rotted leaves from the fall before) and mulch around the new planting (2-3 inches deep and away from the stem) just after planting. Digging in the wet-cold soil (too much) only serves to damage the structure of soil and leave it clumping and hard. Wait til the ground warms a bit, if you ordered from a good place they will not ship until it is appropriate for you to plant anyway. (for me, also zone 6, that will likely be around the end of April/beginning of May). Anything that comes in before that will get 'heeled in' in one of my vegetable raised beds (any good soft soil will do) or in a pinch I'll pot them up in 2-3 gal containers and place in a protected part of the yard. If you start digging too close to young trees you risk damaging roots (ignore the myth that the roots of a tree are a mirror of its top, imagine instead the roots being more like the tree's shadow, only extending about 1-2 feet below the surface (there are exceptions of course)). If you plant a grape vine at the base of a cherry, it will quickly overgrow and smother the cherry. Also, sunlight is necessary for the ripening of fruit and a grape in a cherry would only serve to increase the chances and severity of disease in both plants. ~Chills

I have decided to go ahead with Irish Luck. I found a good pot like the ones that my Albomarginata and others are in that are larger... Even larger than the next one up that my U. Albo will be going into soon. So I am confident it will be OK and a good addition to my hosta garden. I have spotted 3 spaces for the new hostas (when I order them)... So all I am waiting on now is the auctions on Ebay to close and the payment to transfer and then I will be ordering sometime mid next week! YAY!

THanks patti, for putting up the link, I am either going to do this in my grandson's room or give it to his schools art class, I think it would be a great project for an art class and if they put it on a large piece of plywood they could auction it off...I just thought it was awesome. Huggy

I would agree that a deeper cabinet would look better. It would probably be easier for him access than something recessed too. If you dont want the expense of the additional depth you could always just install it 6 inches out from the wall and put the counter on as if it was full depth. I'd probably do that as 30 inches would be borderline too deep to not just lose things in the back.