Q: From the street to my house is a pretty steep slope. I want to plant a Yoshino cherry as a feature there. Rather than planting it on the hill, I wanted to do an island that has a small brick/rock wall on the house side that merges into the ground at the top. Here’s a rough sketch of what I am trying to do.

A: You are exactly correct with your sketch, you have to cut into the slope and use a low wall on the downside of the area to create a flat spot to plant the tree.

The images below will help explain the task.