anarchy in the arboretum
How to plant a tree. Have you ever snuck down to a local park and planted a tree without permission. Anarchy of the trees.
Imagine if we all did that. Wandered about with our shovels strapped to our backs and an armful of trees. It would be anarchy. Un-curated. Forest like. Wild. The place would be heaving with trees all willy nilly and kids climbing into them without taking their shoes off. Laughing like birds. And screaming out: my grandma planted this tree and she never even asked permission!
We would be sneaking about like old time marijuana growers with our recycled milk bottles full of water - watering our illegal trees!
We would have jungles in our parks. Oh the horror! All that unfettered air cleaning.
Just plant your secret tree out of the path of the mowers. Mowers have a dubious relationship with trees. Trees love to grow with other trees. Their roots reach out to chat and entangle with each other, they puff pheromones at each other and share nutrients and water and even data about the weather.
Imagine what the trees are saying to us right this minute. And we are not listening. I am listening though - I am going down to plant a native tree in the night just as soon as this park is finished. Don’t think I won’t!
How to plant a potted tree.
There are as many ways of planting a tree as there are tree planters. So - please share your tips in the comments so we can learn from each other.
For the record I have planted literally hundreds of trees on the farms out in Illinois and the gardens in New Zealand and even the UK. This is my favorite way of doing it. I also worked for a while grafting apples onto vigorous rootstock (though that was a while back I don’t think the fundamental make up of a tree is much changed), anyway I taught myself a few shortcuts along the way.
Water the tree in its pot thoroughly.
If the pot is very dry sink the pot straight into a big trough of water. The tree will look relieved standing in a cow trough as osmosis goes about its work. Hold the pot underwater until the pot stops bubbling out air. Bark based potting mixes are notoriously hard to rewet so this submerging move works for any plant that has dried out. I have been known to leave trees in the cows trough overnight but no longer.
Dig a hole twice as WIDE as the pot the tree is currently in and AS DEEP as that pot. (If you dig too deep you risk the tree sinking as the soil settles and the stem rotting. Trees are often grafted onto a root stock and you don’t want the graft to go soggy.).
Make sure one side of the hole has a straight edge.
Score the base of the hole with the spade and pour in half a bucket of water. When it has almost drained pour in half a bucket of compost.
Knock the tree out of its pot and inspect the roots. If it is root-bound you might choose to interrupt that circular thinking by either scoring the root ball a couple of times or gently disentangling a few roots from the ball and angling them outwards. (This works for an anxious mind too).
If you are driving in a stake set it in the hole now. We need to protect the roots from the stake.
Place the root ball hard against the straight edge of the hole. This will give your tree stability. Back fill and tamp the soil down with a stick (think a stiletto heel) to get the soil nicely compacted.
With the left over soil and mulch, create a moat around your tree, (similar in shape to a rubber tire inner). The sides will collect and direct water down to your tree.
Water everyday for a couple of weeks then a good deep water a couple of times a week for the season.
Deep watering, less often, encourages deep roots.
Fertilise spring and autumn.
This young fig is surrounded in decoys to keep the dog from knocking it as she leaps about. There are lots of guard rails in this little garden owned by a big energetic dog.
And that’s it. You have done your bit to save the planet.
Now, let’s do it again! Jungles rock!
Here is a shot of one of the Fellowship Forests I planted in Illinois. Spring has finally arrived and the native wild plums are blossoming.
And roses in my garden here in Melbourne
And as a bonus for getting this far:
Here is a hen house in one of our family gardens in New Zealand.
There are six chooks in there now. And as the garden grows the hen house will slowly be surrounded in plants.
These are ‘point of lay’ hens so this wee family should have eggs in the kitchen in just a few months. Just as soon as the days start getting a little longer.
Eggs deliver great protein so with their big vege garden and their fruit trees and a few chickens and a dairy farm around the corner this family is well on the way to food security.
We probably can’t feed ourselves solely from our gardens but in peak production times we can get close. Set up a food garden that you can joyfully maintain - don’t go too big too soon.
And it will take time. Map out a sustainable lifestyle that includes garden time. It works.
Here is the MOST IMPORTANT LINK - to my reading of The Blue Castle.
The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery, read by Cecilia Gunther
What would you do if you had only a year left to live?
I add to this page three times a week but only email this page every now and then to avoid deluging you in emails. Most people book mark the page and pop back in when you have time to listen.
Don’t go without telling me what is growing in your garden! Or what you are cooking in your kitchen. OR What changes you have made lately in your quest to live gently upon this good earth.
Love Love
Celi
This is such a lovely act of LOVE. We have a good friend whose day job is an ER doctor. The rest of the time he's planting trees and keeping bees. He's planted over 1000 trees in our community alone. We have one of his live oaks that he grew from an acorn that he helped us plant nearly two years ago. We hope our great, great, great, great grandchildren will have that oak too.
Planting: I have chooks, so I add a spadeful of wormy soil from underneath their bedding, and I also add a watering pipe/tub down into the base of the hole while I'm planting so I can water direct to the roots rather than just the soil at the top. My grandpa taught me his tree watering system: every day for a week, every week for a month, every month for a year, so that's what I go with unless we get torrential rain.