Trees
Picking out your trees, planting them correctly and maintaining them are of utter importance to the overall beauty and functionality of your landscape. Shading from trees can reduce your a/c bill by 50% so taking care of these plants is very important. Here are the steps you need to follow from design plan to the maturity of your trees.
Step one...... Plan, plan, plan
It cannot be emphasized anymore that you need to plan what kind of trees you need to get and where to put them. Some trees doing very well in different soils and water situations. Trees should be able to stand on their own once they hit maturity so you should not get a tree that will constantly need to be watered or given nutrients. You also need to pay close attention to placement. the placement of the tree can prove fatal to other trees, plants, grass and even yourself if you plant them to close to your house. You always want to plan a landscape for its future. So think like your tree will be at its maturity size. You cannot plant pine trees with five foot spacing cause they get to be 10-20 feet in diameter. They will start to grow into each other and look really bad and possibly kill other trees which becomes expensive to take them out. So make sure you have a plan and never think that your landscape is going to stay the same size.
Step two ....... Planting
Now this step is fairly straight forward right. Well what you don't know about planting a tree could kill that tree. Although most nurseries will take back a plant within one year of your purchase it is much more of a hassle to keep bringing your trees back so here is what you need to know. Think big and dig a hole that is much bigger than the trees container. Some experts say at least twice the size of the tree. Take the plant out of the container completely. Wiring, plastic, or burlap is not meant to protect anything with the tree. You want to get everything off of the dirt and roots. Then you want to place the tree in the ground so it is straight up and down as much as possible. Adjustments can be made as you go but do the best you can to have the tree straight. Fill a 5 gallon bucket with water and have it handy as you will need it once you start filling in the dirt. Put half of the dirt back in the hole. Pour half of the 5 gallon bucket around the tree. Then fill in the rest of the dirt and empty the bucket of water completely. Make sure you leave a moat around the tree to catch water and hold it in as your tree need to adapt to the soils. DO NOT use fertilizer the first year as it can kill your tree. You will want to stake your tree in the ground as the ground will not be settled enough to hold your tree in place during strong winds. Place two stakes in the ground on opposite sides of the tree and run wire from the stakes to the tree.
Step three ..... Maintenance
Trees can become very dangerous if they are not well maintained. Trees also get more expensive to maintain as they grow in size. Treating them for diseases gets more expensive as well as trimming and fertilizing them. Trimming your trees keeps your yard more open and lets the sunlight get to plants and grass. Treating them for diseases will help prolong the life of your tree and provide more shade for your yard as the leaves will grow fuller.
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