When planting flowers and other container grown plants in your yard:
- Dig a hole the right size for the plant.
- Add compost, fertilizer, or other amendments to the soil around the plant.
- Add water to the hole BEFORE planting the plant in it.
- Plant the plant in the hole, forming a small basin around it to hold water.
- Water the plant again after planting it.
Watch the video above to find out more.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Danny Lipford: Well Tricia, this is working out pretty good. I’ll keep bringing the plants, and you keep planting them.
Tricia Craven Worley: Thanks for your help, Danny.
Danny: Now, how can you really go wrong with planting plants like this? I mean they seem very healthy, but you put them in the ground, you’ve got soil. Any problem with that?
Tricia: Well, you can put them straight into the ground, but you know there are ways to give them a little bit of a head start. And one thing that I like to do is after digging the hole the right size, I put in a little amendment; or, in this instance, a little compost just to give a little bit of nutrition.
Danny: I see.
Tricia: And then I put some water, right now.
Danny: Water it before you even plant it.
Tricia: Absolutely. If you take a look at this primrose, you can see its leaves are a little bit wilty.
Danny: It is kind of sad looking, isn’t it.
Tricia: It is. So when I put this in the soil, it’s going to get the water into the roots immediately.
Danny: Okay, well that makes sense.
Tricia: And what happens with a lot of gardeners is you get involved, and you think well, I’ll go back and water it at the end of the day.
Danny: Right. Easy to forget.
Tricia: Easy to forget, and that sometimes at that point it’s a little bit too late. So how I finished it off is I water it right now, right when I put it in this space. And then something else that I always like to do is give it just a little bit of a basin. See what I’m doing here with the trowel?
Danny: Similar to what you would do with planting a full tree.
Tricia: Correct. Just a little bit of an area where when you pour the water there, it’s going to catch it and give it a little bit more time to sit.
Further Information
- Flower Containers for Beginners (article)
