Digging Tree Pits
Digging tree pits can raise various questions. What will you do with any excess soil? If the soil is stony, perhaps now is a convenient time to dispose of the stones, and use it as hardcore under paths or terracing. If there is solid rock or chalk underneath, what then? If you can get the hole dug out, how will you get stakes driven in? If there is clay, how will your expensive tree enjoy sitting in a hole in solid clay? Is this a crazy place for a semi-mature tree, now that you have seen below-ground?
Trees and Hedges
On the other hand, you would plant new boundary hedges or hedges that were meant to form a substantial internal division of the garden, or any large specimen early on. You would plant anything, in fact, that involves digging big holes and getting large or heavy plants into the garden.
Should you decide to use any extra-heavy standard trees, they will probably come with a large containerized rootball. They will be expensive and worthy of the best soil preparation. Large tree pits will need to be dug, generous enough to allow you to put plenty of well-enriched soil around and under the tree. The rootball should not fit like a plug in a socket just because it is 30 inches across. Accommodate your trees generously.
Trenches for hedges
The same kinds of problems appear when you dig a trench for a hedge. Do not plant hedge trees like individuals. They are going to be there for a long time, and life is going to be very competitive. So dig a deep trench and get some old compost or manure¡ªanything with some humus in it¡ªworked into the soil. In a newly acquired garden, you may have to buy something to enliven the soil, because the luxury of a good compost pile is something rarely found in a neglected garden. These things take time.
Improving the Soil
In urban soil, ameliorants sold in large bags at garden centers may need to be added. In the country, you may be lucky enough to get a load of well-rotted manure or mushroom compost. If so, consider where it can be dumped by a vehicle, and be ready to carry volumes of it to the trench in wheelbarrow loads.
Trees and hedges planted on good soil in what was previously only turf will not require a great deal of soil enrichment. If bringing in ameliorants is difficult, you could get away without it there. But it is always beneficial. On poor soils and places where you have cleared old trees and shrubs, soil enrichment is vital for a good establishment. Worked-out soils, full of root and with no humus in them or even any worms, will not give you speedy growth. What else will thrive where worms fear to tread?
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