Digging to plant my beautiful new tree and there is concrete about 8" down!

[user1471530109]

I am gutted. From what I can tell, the concrete is not just a patch but all over the very large front garden (which previous occupants had covered in weed membrane and put gravel on top. I wasn't expecting it as I've planted other shrubs over the last couple of years.

I'd still really like to plant the tree in the spot I'd planned. It's for privacy. I've picked an amelanchier. I've tried to find information on the roots and all I can find is that it has shallow roots. I've no idea how deep that means.

I am wondering if I add a raised bed over a clear of gravel area .... Do you think this would work? Has anyone done similar?
🙏

I feel your pain. My garden used to be a farmyard and I discovered an old road underneath. It also sits on a seam of ironstone. Digging a flower bed was more akin to mining than gardening. I used a pickaxe rather than a spade!

I guess you can give it a try. Shallow roots often spread outwards rather than straight down, but a tree will still need depth to anchor.

Looks like you will have to do as I did.. large planters. For tree. Large ones retain water well. Then i fenced it with low fencing to top of planter. Filled in with compost so no one would know they were not in the ground. Took them with me when i moved. It's such a shame people concrete gardens over.

Is it definitely concrete and not paving slabs?

I'm not 100% sure. My dd and I had already done lots of digging and planting in the backgarden that day so after our discovery on Sunday, we have up. I don't really understand why there would be paving/concrete under 8" of soil covered in weed membrane and gravel.

There is one large bed in the centre with conifers about 4ft high with lots of bulbs. When I've dug there before I've thought I've hit solid rock/concrete. But would that support 3 conifers?

How deep do you think a raised bed would need to be if I made one? I've honestly got no clue having never had trees in my garden

You could clear a paving slab sized space and see if there are any joins - you might be able to lift on to plant the tree then. Might be easier than building a raised bed.

It does seem odd!

We found a concrete hard standing that must have had a shed or greenhouse at some point. It was around 20cm thick, and about 2-3m x 1.5m.
We bought a heavy duty drill / breaker thing and my partner had a great time breaking it up. You'd need to factor in hiring a skip etc into costs but you'd never know it was there now.

I doubt it's from a shed as it's right in front of the house. About 5m in front of the front window!

I'm working all week but will invest this weekend. It makes it harder with all the plastic on top being weighed down with the gravel. It must have cost a fortune to gravel it all. 5/6m deep by about 20m wide! Why? it's surrounded by walls so not to park on!

Possibly paved or concreted. Then neglected for a few years so the soil built up over it. Then new owners decided to gravel over and maybe didn’t even know about the concrete

Do you have heavy clay soil? My house is built on clay and the houses sit on a concrete "raft" underneath the foundations to prevent subsidence. If that's a possibility for you, I'd be inclined to go for a raised bed high enough for the tree to have a decent root run into the soil below if necessary. You would get extra height on the tree that way too.

Bomb shelter?

I have trees that I've had in very large pots as well as raised beds for years. A beautiful mountain ash in a raised bed that was about 60cms high made from railway sleepers.

I had a paved back yard so everything had to be in the raised bed or a pot.

Can you ask neighbours? Or the old owners?

The old owners are both deceased unfortunately and had I believe lived in the house from when it was built.

I've since found out that this road used to be on an old quarry! Which may explain a lot! I'm going to investigate properly at the weekend (as I'm working full-time and shattered by time I finish). I'm hoping a it's just a big rock now .

I'd love it to be an old shelter 😍 but it's post war house. The ones over the road are pre-war though, so maybe?

Part of my front garden has this. I turned the integral garage into a study and built a new garage on the other side of the house, with a new driveway. This left an area of concrete that used to be the old driveway. I asked the builders to break it up and replace it with top soil, but they found it very deep and hard going. In the end, they only removed half of it, but put enough depth of soil on top to allow plants and medium size shrubs to thrive.
I wonder if your house had something similar, OP?

I've been out there half an hour and I'm knackered! I think it's just full of rubble. I'm also shocked to say it's clay-not like this in the back garden at all.

I'm now unsure what to do. Keep digging? The hole is now twice the size it was. I'm a very unfit, fat single woman. I'm worried all this work is going to be not worth it. Will a tree cope in soil like this? I'm happy to not put the clay back and fill will compost the nursery gave me for trees, but surely the roots will grow and into trouble with the rubble in a few years.

Thankfully I've checked and apparently amelanchier don't mind clay. It's the rubble I'm worried about. I'm still not entirely convinced it's just big rubble/stones...