Landscaper Secret 2: What are My Tree Planting Options?

You've made a decision about what size tree to plant with the help of the previous article and your, hopefully, trusted landscaper. There are four decent ways to get that tree successfully in the ground and growing. A landscaping service can help you with the first three. The fourth is DIY landscaping (with exact instructions to follow in the next article).

Some of the big landscapers out there come out with a huge machine. They drive it into your yard and scoop out a hole as deep as a grave, six feet in diameter.  In one motion.  The crew drives away with your dirt and comes back a little later.

The machine now holds a fully mature tree, root ball and all.  The landscaping crew backs it in.  Some poor soul carefully directs the placement. Then, they lower the tree in. Hey, presto! Instant, fully "mature" landscaping. (This tree was already at least five years old.)

For the rest of us,

these three options are more affordable though they require a lag-time to maturity.  However, the trees will be beautiful during that time. And, you will have great pleasure seeing them grow, perhaps beside your growing family.

Landscaper Secret 2: If size is not critical, there's no reason not to do it yourself!

1. Have the same landscape crew come in with two guys to dig a hole and plant a smaller tree, balled and burlaped. (Balled and burlaped means that it was grown in a field and then dug up, the root ball wrapped, and held for sale or planting temporarily. At some nurseries, you used to go out to the field and select your own tree.) Water and fertilize, wait five years, and Hey, presto! "Mature" landscaping.


2. Get the guy who mows your lawn to plant a large container grown, but still pretty large tree. Water, fertilize, wait five years . . .


3. Sharpen your spade, dig a hole, and plant a five-gallon size tree yourself. Water, fertilize, wait five years. . . .

The cost of these three is sharply different. Even if you choose not to do-it-yourself, it's worth knowing how so that you can knowledgeably supervise the landscaper or landscape crew.