How we Plant our Trees

As of Friday May 8, we received our order of 250 evergreen saplings. In order to plant such a large quantity, there are several steps required to speed up the process.

First, an ideal location must be found. It must be large enough to give the trees adequate space to grow (at least 5 feet between trees, but varies). It also must be in a location with good soil and water supply.

Second, you may want to till strips of land to place the trees in. From my experience of planting onions with my mentor (I planted around 1800 personally in a day), I realize how much quicker things go when you don't have to dig a hole in hard ground each time. With nice, soft soil, a small tree requires little effort to plant.

Third, mark out rows with posts to ensure that there is around seven feet in between each tree. This way, the trees will never have to be moved and will have enough water and nutrients.  This also allows you to fit a lawnmower in-between the rows to keep the land looking well maintained.

Then it is most efficient to dig 5-10 holes at a time. For small trees especially, digging a hole takes only around 15 seconds. For our saplings, the holes are about 8 inches deep.

Finally, place a small tree in the hole, surrounding it with soft and moist soil. Make sure all the mud that was taken out of the hole is covering the base of the tree and packed tight. This provides support and holds sufficient water near the roots.

Progress Update

I have started, with the help of my mom, the monstrous task of planting the 250 seedlings on our property. My mom has been an unexpented mentor, providing knowledge and experience as we plant together. Currently 80 are in the ground. It is hard to find time to plant them, because of sports, school and work. Also, the trees can only be planted on certain days, when the ground is not to wet or dry. The 170 remaining seedlings don't have much longer before they have to be planted, which means I will have plenty of late nights ahead of me.

In total so far, I have (trans)planted 206 trees. If the trees were to remain where they were originally, they wouldn't grow successfully, or be killed by lawnmowers or other causes. The willow cuttings however, didn't survive. My mom says that the bucket in which they were soaking was in a too hot location for the roots to grow. It is a major blow to my project, losing 30-40 trees, but I hope to make up for it with other trees.

Progress update

Willow cuttings

Our order for trees will be available by May 7th, at which point my project will take off. Currently, we are preparing the willow 'trees' for planting by letting them soak in water. I will ask my mentor his opinion on when they will be ready to plant.
This weekend, the first time I won't be busy in a while, I will start to transplant some of our older trees to our other property. They are currently much too close to each other and it is hindering growth. With the spots I free up, I will fill next weekend when our tree order comes in.
The next few weeks will be a lot of hard work, as I get the bulk of my project done.