When planting a tree in your yard:
-
- Build a dirt berm around it to hold in water.
- Support the tree from wind damage with stakes and old stockings.
Watch this video to find out more.
Further Information
- Choosing a Tree for Your Yard (video)
- How to Plant a Bare Root Tree (video)
- Planting Balled and Burlapped Trees and Shrubs (article)
- Planting Container Grown Trees and Shrubs (article)
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Danny Lipford: I know it’s important to do the right things when planting a small tree like this, but what’s the real purpose of the dirt being piled up around the tree?
Tricia Craven Worley: Well, just like taking care of a young child or a young animal, it’s the same thing with a tree.
First thing you want is to give it a nice bed to live in. And what I’ve done after we’ve planted the tree properly is to create this berm. And the berm is so that when you water the plant, water is going to stay in this basin.
Now, I already have a bubbler here from a tree that was previously here that died about three years ago, so everything is nice and well set.
Then the next thing is because this is such a young tree, we need to stake it, because in any kind of wind, you can see, it’s just a very small, slim, little tree.
Danny Lipford: And, with the soil being so loose and moist, I guess it could get blown over.
Tricia Craven Worley: It could definitely get blown over. So, we have these stakes here to keep it in position. And then finally, the last thing that is awfully important to me, is that you need to be able to support it.
Danny Lipford: Right.
Tricia Craven Worley: Now I use some old stockings here. And as you can see—aside from being kind of beige so you don’t see them immediately—when the tree does move, because undoubtedly the wind’s going to come up, the tree can move back and forth within this space without maring or nicking the skin to the tree, and that’s going to be a good thing.
There are other things you can use, maybe plastic bags or whatever, but I think these little nylon stockings will last long enough for the tree to establish itself.
Danny Lipford: Makes sense.
