Silver Birch Planting

I cannot take all the credit for this planting job as the customers did the lions share of the work - choosing, buying, locating and even getting the hole started! I simply came in at the end to finish off.

I dug the hole to depth before tidying up the roots which had been girdling in the pot. I lined the bottom of the hole with compost and Mycorrhizal fungi then oriented the tree for best aesthetics in the hole and firmly filled in around it with compost and topsoil.

The stake was angled towards the most frequent viewing angle (this minimises its appearance when one sees it head on) and pounded in as far as it would go. The baked bean tin prevents the wooden stake from mushrooming and splitting when struck with a hammer.

The final steps were then to use a rubber tree tie to anchor the tree to the stake (too high and the tree won’t develop any wind resistance, too tight and it’ll girdle the trunk), then cut the stake off neatly and top dress around the tree with compost.