Planting a tree is slightly more complicated than digging a hole and sticking a tree in it, but not too complicated. Follow these quick tips and your new tree will be sheltering you from the sun in no time. And, by that, I mean in a few years.
The first step is to pick a tree, but that is another blog. Once you have the right tree it’s time to find the right place to plant it. The rookie mistake here is to look around at the ground to find your spot. LOOK UP! You want to find a place where adjacent trees’ canopies won’t be crowding your new tree too much. You want an open view of the sky from your planting spot.
Now it’s time to start digging. The depth of your planting hole should be the exactly the same as the root ball of your new tree. If you hit bedrock and can’t go deep enough, this is okay. However, if you plant the tree too deep it will be certain death. When you can’t dig deep enough, just mound the soil around the root ball and add a little more mulch than you normally would to help insulate. Do not chip a hole in the rock to plant. This hole in the rock will not drain water and will become a cesspool of root disease. For width, make the hole about 12” wider on all sides than the root ball so you have room to add fill soil around the root ball.
Before you put the tree in it’s new home you need to prepare the root ball. Most people have a hard time with this. Normal instinct is to be very cautious with the precious roots, but what you really need to do is tear them up. Trees sitting in a container at the tree farm end up with roots growing in circles around the edge of the container. We need to loosen or cut these roots or we’ll end up with girdling roots in 10 years and you’ll be wondering why your tree randomly died.
Now it’s time to stick your tree in the hole. But, first double check to make sure that your root ball and hole depth are still the same. Tearing up the root ball may have changed this. Throw some dirt in the hole if needed to bring the top of the root ball to surface level. Now that your tree is in the hole, throw some dirt around the edges to fill the hole. I like to mix some of the native clay with some sand, topsoil, and mulch, but you can get away with just using the dirt you pulled from the hole or topsoil from the local garden store or nursery. Top with 3-4” of mulch and you are good to go.
Water the tree thoroughly before putting the mulch down and water it every three days for the first 6 months.