The Globe and Mail posted a video today where gardening expert Marjorie Harris demonstrated how to plant a tree.

Ms. Harris doesn’t plant the tree quite they way I have have. In a small garden with an attentive gardener, her trees will survive. However, in a larger space where day-to-day attention isn’t always possible, a different strategy should be used.

How to plant a tree:

1. To stretch your money further, purchase bare-rooted trees rather than balled or tree-scooped trees.
2. Bare-rooted trees will need a larger hole. Dig a hole approximately 1.5 metres wide and 1 metre deep. Put the soil aside.
3. In the bottom of the new hole, put in a mixture of equal parts manure, peat moss and the soil you just took out. This will give your new trees roots a good place to grow. Keep filling the hole with this mixture until about there is about 20 to 30 cm left to the surface. This gives enough base for the tree roots with out burying the tree above its neck.
4. Remove 1/3 of the mixture and put it aside.
5. Mix an ample amount of bone meal into the hole.
6. Place the tree in the hole and make sure that it is standing up straight in all directions.
7. Fill the hole with the 1/3 of the mixture that you removed and put aside. This should cover your tree to its next. If it doesn’t, fill the rest of the whole with a mixture of manure and peat moss.
8. Build a ring of dirt around your tree that is about 5 cm tall and as wide as your original hole. This is a dyke to hold water when you water your tree.
9. Slowly pour a bucket of water onto your new tree. This water will help the dirt to settle around the new tree. If pockets or holes appear in the soil, top it up with dirt.
10. New trees 10′ should be watered with 20L of water twice a week unless they have received substantial amounts of rain. If your project is in a neighbourhood or near a school, consider finding a local student who does casual lawn maintenance to water the trees for you. Be careful that the trees are not drowned with too much water.
11. As soon as you can, and once the trees have been watered a few times, add a layer of mulch around the tress. This mulch should be the same area as the dyke and to a depth of 10 cm. Be careful not to mound the mulch around the neck of the tree.

Trees planted with this method typically have a 95% survival rate compared to the typical 60% rate expected by municipalities.