I know we're in the midst of the PNW darkness but, really, spring is just around the corner.

My wife and I plan on planting several fruit trees this spring and I want to make sure I'm ready when the time comes. We've talked about planting several along the side of a long, straight driveway. The problem we have is that we have A LOT of clay in our soil and the spot we've looked at tends to have periods of standing water during and after heavy rain events, particularly in the winter.

My thought was that we still might be able to plant in this location if I built some large, above the ground tree boxes? I wouldn't put a bottom on the boxes and, eventually, the tree roots would make their way to our native, soggy soil but would at least have part of the tree well above the water table.

Does anyone have any experience with this? I suspect choosing the right rootstock will also be important to my chances of success.

-AP