As promised in our last post for this mini-episode of LITFM
we present the information on how to plant shrubs and trees. The reason his information
as withheld from the last post was because the example plants in question wound
up going into a specially designed bed that our photography would have ruined
the surprise on. Without further delay
LITFM presents the missing content for last week’s post.
Planting a shrub or tree should not have to be a
back-breaking endeavor; if you are equipped to handle the task it should be no
more difficult than any other normal garden task if provisions are made for the
physical requirements of the task. The first thing to know is that the best
time to plant trees or shrubs in the landscape is either mid-spring or in
autumn after the high temperatures that tend to linger have finally begin to
reliably drop into the low 70’s to mid-upper 50’s. The purpose of planting at
these two times is to give your trees and shrubs a chance to settle in before
any major weather comes into play be it hot, cold, wet or dry. For the purposes
of this example two plants are being planted at the test gardens. The tree used
in the example is a Ginko biloba which
is commonly called a Ginko or a Maidenhair Tree. The shrub is a Rhaphiolepis indica or Indian Hawthorn.
The two were placed in the same bed because their relative needs are somewhat
similar and their shape, form and contrasting passive features make them stand
out in the landscape.
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| The right tools for planting a shrub and or tree, Excavator shovel, Trenching shovel and wheel barrel. |
In the above picture you can see that the excavation of the planting
site has already begun. In the wheel barrel there is at least 6cu of excavated
soil and this is important to note because at a later step remembering how much
soil you remove will determine your workload later. The trenching shovel is
present to bust through roots in the planting zone where as the excavator is
used obviously to remove the large amounts of newly unpacked soil that needs to
be removed so you can plant.
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| The initial planting holes with the plants set next to their holes. |
Many sources say that you should dig your planting holes to a diameter
double the diameter of the plant’s root ball however honestly I find that digging
a tapered planting hole just as effective. Basically the planting hole at the
soil surface is double as wide as the tree or shrub’s root ball but the bottom
of the hole is perhaps ¼ wider while the bottom of the hole is softened up so
that there is somewhat loose soil beneath the plant. The purpose of this method
is two-fold, your trees and shrubs have ample room to form their network of
fine feeder roots while the primary tap roots or buttress roots have no
impediment in going downward in search of nutrient and moisture.
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| Loosening the root ball is critical to the process. |
Containerized plants often have what is called a ‘Root ball’.
The root ball results from the plant’s roots inability being able to spread out
as normal due to the restricting nature of a nursery pot. The roots over time
hit the sides of the container and continually circle or attempt to grow out
through a drainage hole at the bottom. This situation is unhealthy for the
plants in the long term and in a nursery environment shrubs and trees that fail
to sell are often repotted to keep them healthy. However when you get such a
plant it is wise to loosen the root ball to break the circling habit of the
plants. In some cases this may involve tearing up the roots at the bottom of
the plant’s pot, in others it may involve a process called ‘Butterflying’ the
root ball. Typically you use a 3” knife or a carefully welded shovel to cut
four lines along the sides of the root ball that are equally spaced. After the
sides are cut you would then cut a X along the bottom that matches your other
cuts. You might also loosen any roots at the bottom that look to tangled to be
healthy.
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| Some say that shrubs and trees should be planted level with the natural soil level, however I tend to plant them about ½” high. |
Settling the plant into its new home is more a matter of
preferences and landscape observation than anything else. I plant my shrubs and
trees just a bit high to encourage better feeder root growth; also it allows me
to mound the beds so they have a lower risk of flooding. Remember how I
mentioned earlier that it is important to note the amount of soil you displace
by planting? I displaced about 8cu in total but because of the root balls of
the Ginko and Indian Hawthorn, I ended up having to replace only 6 cu. In this
case the soil seen around the hawthorn and in the wheel barrel in the last
picture was ‘spent’ potting soil. Some might object to using my old potting
soil for this purpose however, the soil excavated was almost entirely pure
sand, putting composted manure would have been a problem here and using new
topsoil would have been a waste. Spent topsoil however is ideal because I’ve
got no shortage of it this time of the year and while it’s spent in terms of
growing crops for food it is not spent in the context of being a viable soil
amendment for moisture retention and nutrient quality for slow growing
landscape plants.
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| The finished bed, along with the shovel that didn’t quite make it to this point in the process. |
The above image is how the bed was finished just before
mulch was applied; the teardrop shame came to me on a whim. Apparently I failed
to take a finished image of the bed after cypress mulch was applied but that
will be coming shortly. The end result was a compact design that has some
year-round interest factors. The use of
contrasting height primary plants coupled with a semi-seasonal flowering
contrast plant (I stuck a single red canna lily between the tree and shrub) the
effect should be quite striking in 2015.
So this wraps up this miniature post, As mentioned before,
the big veterans day city market event is on Saturday the 8th and we’re
setting up early that day because of the new position for the event and the fact
that there is a car show on premises. The Wednesday market will continue as
normal and we will maintain a spot there at least until the end of November.
Stay tuned for more information on the big Saturday event in our next post will
hopefully will be posted as soon as we have our position data for Saturday.
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| Our intrepid Tourists braving the wind and cold in search of the greatest garden tips & tricks |
With any luck this week’s actual post will be posted up here
no later than Thursday. I know the weather wasn’t quite cooperative but for
those of you who braved the cold to go on the tour thank you!
