How to Plant a Tree in Your Garden

Plant it well and take care of it, and your tree will pay dividends, providing your yard with color, shade and structure for many years to come.

Excerpted from How to Grow Practically Everything
Filed under: Trees, How To

Plant the Tree

Hold the tree in the hole and turn it until its best side is facing in the right direction. Then fill around the root ball with the excavated soil. Do this in three stages; adding soil and gently firming it down with your foot each time. Make sure there are no air pockets between the roots.

Gently Firm In

Make sure the root ball is just above the soil surface. As a guide, look for the "nursery line," where the trunk darkens at the base, showing the level the tree was grown at in the nursery. This must not be buried. Then add a thin layer of soil over the root ball so that no roots are exposed.

Attach Tree to Wooden Stake

Choose a stake that will reach a third of the way up the trunk. Use a mallet to hammer it into the ground at an angle of about 45 degrees with the top facing the prevailing wind. Attach a tree tie at the point where tree and stake meet, using a spacer to prevent them rubbing together.

Enlarge Photo+Shrink Photo-DK - How to Grow Practically Everything © 2010 Dorling Kindersley Limited
Enlarge Photo+Shrink Photo-DK - How to Grow Practically Everything © 2010 Dorling Kindersley Limited