What you’ll need
- Bucket
- Garden hose
- Shovel
step 1: Plan
Consider your lot size, soil conditions and climate when you choose a tree to beautify your property. Trees provide shade, protection from wind and aesthetic pleasure. Got a favorite tree from childhood? Plant a replica in your own yard. Fast-growing trees like the silver maple provide shade in just a few years. Spring bursts into color with flowering trees like dogwood, purple-leaved plum, crape myrtle and crab apple.
step 2: Buy a Tree
Plant trees in fall, when roots have ample time to establish before the ground freezes. Warm soil and cool air will stimulate root growth, which is why fall is the ideal time to plant trees. Buy your tree balled-and-burlapped, container-grown or bare-root.
step 3: Dig
Dig just deep enough for the bottom of the root ball to rest on solid, undug soil for balled and burlapped and container-grown trees. Dig deeper for bare-root trees—about six inches below the soil line—so roots are surrounded with loose soil.
step 4: fertilize & plant
Thoroughly mix 1 part native soil with 1 part garden soil for trees and build a small mound in the center of the hole. Set your new tree into the hole, making sure its soil line (you’ll see it on the trunk) is slightly higher than surrounding soil. Remove ties from ball and burlap trees. Fill the hole with soil mixture, firming with your foot as you go. Leave a depression around the trunk to catch water.
step 5: Water
Water deeply; you may need 5 to 10 gallons. Approximately four weeks later you can begin adding plant food to your waterings. Use it every other week and continue regular watering until the ground is frozen solid. In the spring, be sure to feed your new tree with a tree & shrub fertilizer .