DIY & Home

How To Transplant Trees In Your Garden

Planting trees is great fun, and will give you a lifetime of pleasure! David Ferguson, head gardener and property manager for the National Trust for Scotland at Greenbank Garden, shows you the best way to do it. Enlarge

How To Transplant Trees In Your Garden

Planting trees is great fun, and will give you a lifetime of pleasure! David Ferguson, head gardener and property manager for the National Trust for Scotland at Greenbank Garden, shows you the best way to do it.

You Will Need

  • 1 spade
  • 1 tree
  • 1 steak
  • tree ties
  • garden compost
  • 1 saw
  • 1 hammer
  • mycorrhizal fungi

Method

Dig a hole deep enough to fit the potted tree. Enrich the hole with some garden compost and a spoonful of mycorrhizal fungi, then scatter a bit more fungi on the backfill soil.

Take the tree out of its pot and put it in the hole. You want to maintain the graft at soil level. Fill the hole in with soil.

Insert the steak at an angle to the tree, knocking it in with the hammer. Cut the steak at an angle to allow the water to run off, then tie the bottom of the tree to the steak.