Leyland Cypress barrier for Shed / planting concern

Bound Brook, NJ

Just planted two leyland cypress trees behind my shed to act as a barrier. The soil behind the shed appears to retain moisture and because of this I decided to plant the trees in a raised bed. The space is somewhat restricted with only 5 feet front to back and 10 feet side to side. I originally dug holes for the trees but decided to move them after several weeks because of the water retention. The bush that was pulled from the planting location originally was partially rotted.

The dimension of the raised bed is roughly 9 inches deep 3.5 feet width and trees are 6 feet apart.
The area gets some sun and the soil is somewhat clayish
The planting area is at the end of a slope so that may be why it retains moisture a bit longer.

My concern is that my raised bed will not hold the trees and also that when winter hits the raised bed will not protect the roots from the cold.
I keep calling it a raised bed and not sure if that is even the correct name for it.


Thumbnail by dirtjersey
Dublin, CA(Zone 9a)

I'd probably worry more about the space they have to grow--I've seen other people post that these can get pretty wide as well as being tall, so I don't think having them in a 5 ft wide bed between a shed and what looks like it might be a driveway/walkway is going to be an ideal situation.

Vicksburg, MS(Zone 8a)

I have three Leyland cypress trees out in my yard. The do get very tall and wide so your space isn't going to be nearly big enough for them. My biggest one is four years old and is already approximately 18-20 feet tall and about 10 or more feet in diameter and it's not done growing yet. This type of tree also doesn't get a very deep root system and is subject to being easily blown over in high winds. My biggest Leyland got blown over when hurricane Rita came through here. DH and I stood it back up, packed new soil around the roots and added a tall T-post which we tied the tree to. We have left it there for added strength. We went ahead and put T-posts on the two smaller ones too just as a security measure.

La Vergne, TN

I would plant them near the edge og the bed. Leylands hate standing water, or mushy, they will get root rot very easily in that type of area. I would place them as far aprt as i coulod. When they grow if they are too big you can trim them to keep the width and height. i would have gone with a skip laurel instead of using a tree that can get huge in both height and width and will end up meeting in the space you showed us.

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