Plant 'em high. If you look up instructions for planting trees, many will say to plant them less by digging a big hole and planting them in that (which people seem to want to do) but a more shallow hole, spread the root ball out and covering with soil. When you do it this way, the tree should end up higher than the ground around. May have to keep an eye on the soil and roots while the tree gets established. This should be enough for the six inches or so you're planning; build up more if you're concerned.

Note than when you get your 'soil' in it may have a fair amount of organic matter and some of that will rot away with time, and of course naturally settling. So don't overdo it of course in terms of planting high, the difference may be less than you think when you first spread soil. When you're mulching later, just keep the mulch away from the trunk - six to twelve inches away, possibly more. While mulching will raise the apparent level of soil a bit it will mostly settle and rot away over time.

We have some trees that have depressions around the trunks - I think the soil was built up around established trees when the property was redone 15-20 years ago. Obviously we don't mulch in those - no problems and water doesn't collect in there, presumably the soil drains well enough.

Note, just my personal experience, not an expert, and may depend on the type and size of trees, so do look around to confirm (I'm just a guy on the internet).

what kind of trees.. what size ... ball and burlap ... or potted ... leafed out or dormant ...

what is you soil type.. does it perk ...

why are planting the trees high .... its usually dont for a reason ..

big city location is always helpful ..

what self sowing annuals ... what kind of mulch ...

you only remulch to the previous height ... as it breaks down ... that may or may not be every years.. based on what you use ... your goal is not to build depth with mulch....

ken

Yes my book (foodscaping revolution) does recommend to keep the mulch well away from the trees and avoid the volcano look but I figured that would pool water but glad to hear it doesnt! I'll plant them a little high and just keep the new soil and mulch away then.

As for the direct sowing or self sowing things things like poppies, foxglove, hollyhock, zinnias is what we're hoping to self seed. But not sure how we'd then mulch. So we wait til they've come up already? Can they even self seed into he mulch?

By the way, we are zone 3b, and I will be using hay and aged manure for the beds because we have an abundance of it because we have cows.

I'm not sure exactly what it is you plan on doing but generally, you do not want to plant a tree in a situation where it will at some point (sooner or later) have an additional 6 inches of soil piled around it. That's pretty much a recipe for disaster!

Trees should be planted so that the root flare - that place low on the trunk where it expands outward into the root system - is at the surface of the permanent soil level or slightly higher. It needs to remain visible and exposed.

It sounds like what you propose to do will have the same effect of digging too deep a planting hole or unnecessarily disturbing the soil at the base of the planting hole, allowing settling and the tree sinking too deep. Planting deep is never advised - planting high is!!

I'm not recommending the volcano look, particularly with the way to pool water in the ring (if that's what you mean). Just dig the hole wider (esp depending on roots in the container), less deep, and plant a bit higher, checking where the trunk flare is. You can bring the dirt slowly up to the level of the dirt that was in the container. Note that mulch around the tree over the roots is generally fine, just not right up against the trunk.

Here's one site giving an example - again, planting a bit higher.

https://www.growingagreenerworld.com/how-to-plant-a-tree/

Sorry I was confused about the volcano metaphor too lol I think she means don't pile mulch around the tree but keep it away from the tree. I was thinking that by volcano she meant a crater.

Hmm well maybe I'll just rethink things and keep the trees out of the bed just to be safe. And if I decide to put flowers around the trees all later I'll keep the bed soil level I guess that'll add depth of dimension of whatever anyway haha.

'You can bring the dirt slowly up to the level of the dirt that was in the container.'

Doing that is not necessarily recommended bc many times trees that come in pots have excess soil piled in at the top just from regular tree harvesting, untrained employees, loading etc.

Best to find the root flare by removing the soil using the garden hose. Most times, it's best just to bare root potted trees before planting. This allows one to fix the circling/entangled root problems that accompany trees that are in the pots too long at the nursery.

No dig method is a vegetable gardening term. Other than flowering annuals all other kinds of garden plants do not need or want the highly amended soil customarily developed and maintained for vegetable production. All you have to do with your tree plantings is not pile the stuff on so thick that it buries their trunks.

@Bill_min, good point. I did refer vaguely to the level of the root flare but wasn't specific enough, thanks, and agree that shouldn't just go by what the nursery's done.