flowering crabapple in a raised bed?

[nightshade]

okay so I am moving a stone wall to make room for our drive way. And in the process using it to build a new stone wall lining the side of the drive way. What I would like to do is build a raised bed into the wall it would be a 10x10 interior space 2-3 foot deep. Filled with a mix of top soil and composted horse manure. Would it be okay to plant a crab apple in the center of the area and some vicia, trillums and lily of the valley as ground cover around it? I assume that the roots will just stretch down into the ground under the bed as it grows, so it should be fine. Is this right?

 

[lesa]

Is the raised bed going to be part of a retaining wall? Not quite sure I understand...If it is just a raised bed, there is no reason you can't plant a tree in it. The roots will go down as far as they need to. If it is part of a retaining wall- I would be a little nervous about planting a tree-the roots might wreck your wall. You could do small plants, in that case. Sounds like a great idea-I love stones!

 

[nightshade]

well the wall does not really hold anything it is just a stone wall like you see in hedge rows or separating fields. But I built a huge 3 ft high 10x10 square bed using part of the wall. I am gonna try to get picks when ever it desides to stop raining. Maybe that will help explain it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If I remember right, crabapple roots like to spread out to the edge of the canopy as well as going down. I think your idea will work fine, but I'd limit myself to one of the crabapple varieties that only gets 10' tall, not one of the 25' varieties.

Crabapples are not thick shady trees compared to many. I'm not familiar with all your choice of ground cover, but I'd expect the area to be considered more partial shady as opposed to shady, especially if you prune the tree up a little and form a trunk instead of a bush.

 

[nightshade]

That was what I was thinking, a nice small pruned single trunk tree. Giving partial shade under it in the rest of the bed for the woodland type flowers/ plants beneath. :/ Boy if this works out like I have in my head I think it will look great.