How to: Plant a Tree

Since our house was new when we bought it, there weren't any tree's or any real greenery besides the lawn. So we threw ourselves a crash course in tree planting. I read tons of articles, books, and of coarse phoned my mother :)

Here's what we've learnt:

~First RESEARCH the tree you want to plant. How close is the tree going to be to your house? Are the roots going to interfere with your foundation? or drainage?
~How tall will the tree be at it's mature height??
~Do you need shade? are you prepared to rake leaves in the fall?
Chances are there is a tree out there to match your needs!

We chose a Dogwood for the front of our house, it's roots are non-invasive and I love the white flowers!

We chose a japanese maple for the other side, I love the color of the leaves and the shade it provides our front porch.

We also planted an 8foot ceder just for the year round greenery it provides.
An apple tree and pear tree grace the backyard, we chose those for shade, privacy and fruit.

And our most recent aquisition a Maple tree for the side of our house!! Here's why it was more then neccessary to plant a Maple tree outside our staircase window:
1) it is a west facing window so we needed a little shade
2) I didn't want to hang blinds because I would miss all the light!
and
3) This is the view from the window . . .

We look directly into our neighbors garage, the Maple will solve all these problems and all for the low low price of $40!

Here's the HOW TO:

1. Dig a hole twice the size of the bucket it came in

2. Water the hole and wait until it absorbs
3. Sprinkle bone meal into the hole, (we used organic bone meal from Walmart, you can get a big bag for less than $7)
4. Loosen the root ball
5. Place tree in hole
6. Fill with dirt

7. Top with mulch

8. Stake the tree only if it's tall enough to need it, short trees don't need staking. Also, the point of staking is to help the tree stay straight, not to limit all movement. If you stake a tree and don't allow it to move naturally in the breeze it won't grow strong roots! (This stake is too tall, we cut it down after I took the pic, the stake should be around half the height of the tree to 2/3rds the height of the tree).

9. Then . . . WATER WATER WATER