Snails and slugs can destroy a garden faster than just about anything, so it’s very important for gardeners to understand their habits in order to control them. Snails and slugs are both mollusks, and very similar to each other; the big difference is that snails have shells. Both move by gliding along a muscle that secretes mucus along the way. That dried mucus is what we call the slime trail.

Snails and slugs shun sunlight, feeding mostly at night and on overcast days. You can recognize slug or snail damage by the irregular holes with smooth margins, especially on seedlings. They will also feed on ripening fruit that’s close to the ground, like strawberries, squash, and tomatoes.

Getting Rid of Snails and Slugs

When they are not feeding, slugs and snails hide under boards, plant debris, ground covers, and branches. Keep your mulch no thicker than three inches deep, and don’t use big wood chips because the pests can hide under them. Eliminating as many of the hiding places as possible is the first step toward keeping the pests out of your garden.

Slugs and snails like moisture. Use drip irrigation instead of overhead sprinklers to eliminate excess water around your plants, making the area less attractive to these garden pests. Water in the morning so plants will be dry by evening when the slugs and snails come out. To increase air circulation and drying, prune lower leaves of garden plants and stake plants like tomatoes instead of letting them trail on the ground.

As much as possible choose plants that slugs and snails don’t favor. Seedlings and succulent plants are particularly susceptible to slug and snail damage. Beans, marigolds, lettuce, hosta, and basil are favorites. However, plants with stiff leaves and fragrant leaves—lavender, mint, and scented geraniums, for example—resist these pests.

Handpicking can be effective if done daily. Drop the slugs and snails into a pail of soapy water and empty the pail onto your compost pile. You can also trap snails by creating hiding places with boards, flowerpots, or inverted melon rinds and collecting them in the early morning. Beer in shallow pans sunken throughout the garden attracts slugs and snails, which drown in the liquid.

Gardeners report varying results with slug and snail baits. Iron phosphate is one of the most effective and least toxic of the commercial baits. Remember to read labels carefully before buying any chemicals to use your garden. Use baits in combination with the methods described above for successful management.

Want to learn more on snails and slugs?

Brown Garden Snail. From Oregon State University, this site focuses on the brown garden snail.

Snail and Slug Control. The University of California’s Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach to slug and snail control.

Slugs in Home Gardens. Good pictures of slug damage from the University of Minnesota Extension.

If you like gardening or spending time in nature, you might enjoy making and using dyes from plants. Dyes from flowers, fruits, and leaves of garden plants and wildflowers create unique, mellow colors very unlike the dense colors from commercial dyes. And with natural plant dyes you don’t need to use dangerous chemicals.

Dying with plants is an ancient art. Following is one simple method of making natural dye and using it to color fabric.

Collecting the Plant Material for Natural Dyes

If you collect plant dye material from plants that grow in woods and fields, be sure that you know the plants because some wild plants. Some wild plants, such as pokeweed and water hemlock, have poisonous properties. Others, like poison ivy and poison oak, cause allergic reactions in many people. Also, it’s best to obtain permission before collecting on someone else’s property; if you don’t you could be accused of trespassing or theft.

Collect your plant material in the morning, after the dew has dried but before the sun hits the plants.

Plants to Use for Natural Dyes

Following is a list of common dye plants and the colors they yield. Many other plants also make good dyes. It’s fun to experiment with plants and combinations.

• Red cabbage, blueberries, blackberries – blue
• Red beet skins – brown
• Nettle, spinach – green
• Elderberries, mulberries– purple
• Yellow onion, dandelion heads – orange
• Strawberries, cherries, roses – pink
• Hibiscus or sumac flowers – red
• Dandelion, marigold, daffodil, and goldenrod flowers – yellow
• Ground coffee beans – creamy brown

Making the Natural Dye with Plant Material

Once you use pots for making dyes and dying fabric, don’t use them for cooking.

Chop the plant material into small pieces. Put the plant pieces in a large stainless steel pot; then add twice as much water as plant material. Boil 30-40 minutes, then let stand for 24 hours or overnight. Re-boil; then strain the liquid to remove the plant material.

Preparing the Fabric for Natural Dye

Natural fabrics such as cotton, silk, and wool take better to natural dyes than do synthetics. If you use cotton, make sure it hasn’t been worn because color won’t take it the fabric has any traces of body oil.

With most dyes and materials you have to prepare the fabric so the color will adhere to it and not run, a process called fixing. Fixing requires a mordant or fixer; alum, lemon juice, vinegar, and baking soda are common mordants. Different mordants create different effects.

Start with white fabric, and wash it well. Add a small amount of mordant to one quart of warm water in a large stainless steel pot. (Note: Always add the mordant to the water, not vice versa.) Add the fabric to the pot, bring the liquid to a boil, and then let it simmer for 45-60 minutes. Remove the pot from the stove to cool; then use tongs to remove the fabric from the water. Rinse the fabric in cold water until it runs clear; then blot out the extra water with paper towels.

How to Dye the Fabric

Take the wet fabric and put it into a stainless steel pot with the dye. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30-40 minutes (until you get the color you want), stirring gently with a wooden spoon or paddle to make sure the dye covers evenly. Some people leave the fabric in the dye overnight without boiling it. Remove the fabric from the water with tongs. Rinse it in cold water and hang it to dry it out of the sun.

Learn More About Natural Dyes

There’s a lot more to know about making natural dyes and using them to dye fabrics. You can find many people willing to share their ideas and experience. Here are three particularly interesting websites:
Natural Dyes
Making and Using Natural Dyes
How to Dye Clothes Using Natural Methods

I like to garden and grow houseplants, but I also like to travel. I finally figured out how to combine my two pleasures successfully—self-watering pots. With self-watering pots and planters I can go away knowing my plants will get the water they need. Believe it or not, I can leave my houseplants for as long as a month! Self-watering containers have other advantages: they take the guesswork out of watering, help prevent root rot, and make it easier for busy people to maintain their gardens. It’s also great if you have plants in places that are hard to reach.

How to Use Self Watering Planters

Self-watering planters have reservoirs that hold water. The amount of water varies with the size and style of the planter. Some have a wicking material that transports the water to the soil, while others rely on capillary mats and/or evaporative action to moisten the soil. A refill tube makes it easy to refill the reservoir with water. Some self-watering planters include a water level indicator or a window in the reservoir to help you judge when you need to add water.

A lightweight, well-drained soil mix works well in self-watering containers. It promotes growth and aeration. While proportions and ingredients vary, a typical mix may contain equal parts perlite and peat. Shellfish compost is another common component of some container mixes. Frequency of watering depends on the size of the reservoir, the size of the container, the type of plants, and environmental conditions such as sun, wind, and rain. For indoor plants, heat and air conditioning affect how quickly the plants use up the water in the reservoir.

Some self-watering containers include staking systems designed for tomatoes and other crops that need support. You can also buy self-watering raised garden containers, which are ideal for people who prefer to garden at waist height. Containers may come with casters for easy moving, fertilizer, and/or mulch.

Interested in making your own self watering pot?

You can buy self-watering planters in all shapes and sizes, from individual pots to hanging baskets to window boxes. You can also buy conversion kits and transform your favorite containers into self-watering pots. Or you can make your own self-watering pots with instructions from websites like these:

Quick and Easy Self-watering Planters
Turn Storage Containers into Self Watering Planters
Video on How to Make a Self-watering Planter

Pollinators are responsible for the survival of about 75 percent of the flowering plants and 75 percent of the crops around the globe. Without pollinators such as hummingbirds, bats, moths, bees, beetles, flies, and butterflies, life as we know it could not continue.

Threats to Pollinators

Sadly, pollinators face many threats. First of all, their habitats–the places they go to feed, rest, and reproduce–are being destroyed. As roadways, lawns, and crop fields replace natural areas with their native pollen and nectar plants, pollinators have fewer and fewer familiar places to go. For the pollinators who migrate seasonally the loss of habitat means they have to travel longer distances between resting places, making it harder for them to survive their already arduous trips.

Pesticides are another problem. They are designed to kill pests, but they often kill plants and animals that aren’t pests. Pesticides kill pollinators themselves as well as some of the plants they depend on.

Some pollinators face particular threats. Bats, for example, are dying from white-nose syndrome. More than one million hibernating bats have died from this fungal disease in the past three or four years. And the population of honey bees has declined nearly 50 percent in the last 50 years, at least in part because of mites and diseases.

The Pollinator-Friendly Garden

Gardeners can help pollinators survive by creating pollinator-friendly habitats in their own backyards.

You can make a few simple choices that will turn your garden into an oasis for pollinators.
Provide pollen and nectar sources throughout the growing season by planting flowers that bloom at different times of the year.

• Plant flowers in clumps rather than singly or in rows.
• Select plants that are known to attract pollinators in your area. Many of these will be native plants. You can learn what pollinator-friendly plants grow in your part of the country from the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC) and the Pollinator Partnership.
• To attract different types of pollinators choose flowers with a variety of flower shapes and colors. NAPPC also has a guide to the types of flowers that appeal to the different pollinators, at: Guide to Attracting Different Pollinators with FlowersThe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

In addition to planting flowers that attract pollinators, you can take other steps to bring pollinators to your garden, such as:

• Installing bat houses and bee nesting blocks.
• Keeping a source of fresh water.
• Keeping a patch of ground bare and undisturbed, preferably facing south.
• Leaving a dead tree or limb in wooded areas as natural nesting spots.
• Avoiding use of pesticides in and around the house.

Want to learn more about attracting pollinators to your garden?

Many people and organizations are aware of the serious threat to pollinators, and are taking steps to educate the public and protect the endangered pollinators. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has an entire website devoted to pollinators. You can find great information, plus links to related sites at The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Polinators website.

Grown for their lush foliage and nutritious and delicious fruit, avocado trees are popular landscape plants in tropical and subtropical climates.

How to Plant an Avocado Tree

Avocado trees prefer a well-drained, slightly acid soil (pH 6-6.5); they do poorly in wet soils. They grow best when planted in full sun with protection from wind and frost. To conserve soil moisture, mulch with two to six inches of coarse bark mulch. Keep the mulch at least eight inches from the base of the trunk to protect the trunk from insects and diseases.

Spring is the best time to plant avocadoes. Because they can easily grow to 40 feet tall and have a spreading root system, plant avocado trees at least 25 feet from any building. To protect trunks from damage from lawn mowers, roots from overwatering by lawn irrigation systems, and fruit from the negative effects of lawn fertilizer, choose non-lawn sites for your avocado trees.

Fertilizing and Watering Avocado Trees

Fertilizer recommendations vary by location, but are consistently light during the first year. Infrequent thorough watering promotes strong root growth, particularly important for the shallow rooted avocado. For the first three years water young trees weekly during extended droughts.

Avocado Tree Pests and Diseases

While a number of insects attack avocado trees, they rarely affect the fruit enough to warrant any type of control measures. A good way to avoid disease problems is to plant scab-resistant varieties in well-drained soils and monitor the leaves and fruit for signs of disease. Avocadoes are susceptible to a number of fungal problems. Local agricultural extension offices are the best sources of information about the control of fungal diseases of avocadoes.

Opossums eat avocadoes and will climb trees to get the fruit if they don’t find any on the ground.

How to Harvest an Avocado

Avocado fruit doesn’t ripen until it falls from the tree or is harvested. Avocadoes are ready to be harvested when they reach a certain weight or size, which varies according to the variety. A mature fruit will ripen indoors at 60-75 degrees F in three to eight days after it is picked. Avocadoes don’t have to be harvested all at the same time; you can harvest them as needed.

Growing Avocadoes From Seeds

While you can definitely grow an avocado tree from a seed (aka pit or stone), the tree will probably not be the same variety as the one the seed came from. Because avocado varieties do not come true from seed, you don’t know what variety or quality of fruit you’ll get when you start with a seed. Plus, an avocado tree takes 10-15 years to go from seed to flowering and fruiting. If you want to grow an avocado tree for its fruit it’s best to buy a healthy two- to four-foot plant from a reputable nursery.

Want to learn more about growing avocadoes?

Avocado Growing in the Florida Home Landscape
Home Fruit Production-Avocado
Click the following link to find amazing information about avocados from the California Avocado Commission.

To get kids excited about gardening, let them help you with your gardening tasks. Pulling weeds, digging, and picking vegetables are great activities for kids. Be sure to make it fun and not a chore. Encourage them to look at the plants and flowers and ask questions.

Following are a few activities that can help jumpstart your children’s love of gardening. The possibilities are endless; the kids will probably come up with neat ideas for their own projects.

Make a Sunflower House

Growing a sunflower house is a very cool way to get children engaged in gardening. Sunflowers form the walls and ceilings of these living houses.

1. Prepare the soil
In the spring when the soil is warm enough to work, stake out a square in the sun that is six feet on each side. Loosen and turn over the soil in a foot-wide path along the edge of the square. Leave two feet of soil unturned on the north side for a doorway. Mix a generous amount of compost or aged manure into the soil because sunflowers are heavy feeders.

2. Plant the seeds
When night temperatures reach 50 degrees, it’s time to plant the sunflower seeds. Choose a sunflower variety with strong stems that grows to twelve feet high. Sow the seeds in the worked soil, placing two seeds in holes that are one foot apart.

3. Grow the sunflowers
When the seedlings are about six inches high, snip off the weaker of the two. Pulling the weak one out can damage the roots of the remaining plants, that’s why it’s better to snip the seedling off than to pull it out.

Spread mulch around the sunflowers to keep weeds down and conserve water. Water as needed.

4. Shape the roof
Start shaping the roof when your sunflowers are six feet tall. Gently tie baling twine about one foot below a flower on one of the plants. Pull the twine slowly, moving the stem toward the plant opposite it. Loop the twine around the stem of the opposite plant. Carefully pull the two plants together until the tops meet; knot the twine to hold them together. Tie all the pairs together until the roof is complete.

Grow a Theme Garden

Why not plan and plant a garden with your children around a theme that they like? How about a pizza garden with tomatoes, basil, oregano, and green peppers? (You’ll have to buy the crust, the pepperoni, and the cheese!) Or plant a red garden that produces red fruits, flowers, and vegetables all summer. If your teenagers are reading Shakespeare in school you could work together to research and plant flowers mentioned in his plays. Or you could grow a garden with all their favorite foods. The possibilities are endless.

Start Worm Composting

Worms are fascinating to most kids. It’s easy to set up your own worm composting system in your house. The whole family can see how worms turn kitchen waste into compost.

• Fill a plastic bin or wooden box (with holes in the bottom) with damp (not soaking wet) shredded paper and cardboard for bedding.
• Add red worms, also called red wrigglers. Unfortunately the earthworms from your garden won’t live in this setup. You can order red wrigglers online or get them from a bait shop.
• Chop up leftovers and tuck them under the bedding. Fruits and vegetables, grains, and pasta work great, but meat and dairy products don’t.
• Watch the worms transform your kitchen scraps into castings, which you can use to feed your garden or your houseplants.

Let Children Plant Seeds

The first time a child plants a seed and watches it grow it’s like watching magic. When you sow seeds with kids use fail-safe seeds that grow quickly, like marigolds and radishes. Even young children can put the seeds in the ground, cover them, and water them. What a way to teach kids about life!

Want to learn more and gardening ideas for children?

You can find more great ideas for gardening projects for kids online. Here are a few good sites:

Plant Project with Kids

Gardening for Kids Theme Page

Garden Projects for Kids

Photo found on Flickr, courtesy of David Davies.

If you have ever bitten into a bitter cucumber, you know it’s not something you want to do again. If you grow your own cukes, a few simple techniques will help you avoid bitter fruit.

Why Cucumbers Taste Bitter

Cucumbers contain the natural compound cucurbitacin, which causes bitterness. Bitterness varies by variety of cucumber and by temperatures during the growing season.

Uneven watering increases bitterness, as does cool weather. Fertilization, plant spacing, and watering may also affect bitterness, although plant scientists have not found consistent cause and effect.

Growing Great Cucumbers

Plant cucumber varieties that are less bitter. Studies in eastern Washington State found that Burpee Pickler produces four times as much bitter fruit as National Pickling.

Plant cucumbers in warm soil in warm, sunny locations. Since misshapen fruit tend to be more bitter, and uneven watering contributes to misshapen fruit, it’s important to provide adequate and consistent irrigation.

Mulching helps maintain even soil moisture. Inadequate nutrient levels also contribute to uneven growth, so ample fertilization can help prevent bitterness. A soil test can provide guidance on the fertilizer and amendments your soil needs.

Peel Away the Cucumber Bitterness

Bitterness varies in the different parts of a cucumber. The stem end, the peel, and the light green area just under the peel have higher concentrations of the bitter compound than the interior flesh. While not everyone agrees about this, some gardeners say you can peel away the bitterness this way:

* Start at the blossom end of the fruit.
* Slice off one strip of peel, stopping about one inch from the stem end.
* Wash the knife, then continue slicing off strips until the cuke is completely peeled.
* Wash the knife again before cutting up the cucumber.

Helpful Websites

The following extension websites have excellent information about bitterness in cucumbers and how to prevent it. Since local growing conditions affect bitterness, it’s a good idea to check with your extension service about the best varieties and growing methods for your area.

To find the nearest extension office, go to The National Institute of Food and Agriculture website.

Read all about Bitterness in Cucumbers.

Here’s an excellent .pdf over How to Avoid Bitter Tasting Cucumbers.

Know the facts about Bitterness in Cucumbers and Zucchini.

If you like gardening or spending time in nature, you might enjoy making and using dyes from plants. Dyes from flowers, fruits, and leaves of garden plants and wildflowers create unique, mellow colors very unlike the dense colors from commercial dyes. And with natural plant dyes you don’t need to use dangerous chemicals.

Dying with plants is an ancient art. Following is one simple method of making natural dye and using it to color fabric.

Collecting the Plant Material

If you collect plant dye material from plants that grow in woods and fields, be sure that you know the plants because some wild plants. Some wild plants, such as pokeweed and water hemlock, have poisonous properties.

Others, like poison ivy and poison oak, cause allergic reactions in many people. Also, it’s best to obtain permission before collecting on someone else’s property; if you don’t you could be accused of trespassing or theft.

Collect your plant material in the morning, after the dew has dried but before the sun hits the plants.

Plants to Use

Following is a list of common dye plants and the colors they yield. Many other plants also make good dyes. It’s fun to experiment with plants and combinations.

* Red cabbage, blueberries, blackberries – blue
* Red beet skins – brown
* Nettle, spinach – green
* Elderberries, mulberries– purple
* Yellow onion, dandelion heads – orange
* Strawberries, cherries, roses – pink
* Hibiscus or sumac flowers – red
* Dandelion, marigold, daffodil, and goldenrod flowers – yellow
* Ground coffee beans – creamy brown

Making the Dye

Once you use pots for making dyes and dying fabric, don’t use them for cooking.

Chop the plant material into small pieces. Put the plant pieces in a large stainless steel pot; then add twice as much water as plant material. Boil 30-40 minutes, then let stand for 24 hours or overnight. Re-boil; then strain the liquid to remove the plant material.

Preparing the Fabric

Natural fabrics such as cotton, silk, and wool take better to natural dyes than do synthetics. If you use cotton, make sure it hasn’t been worn because color won’t take it the fabric has any traces of body oil.

With most dyes and materials you have to prepare the fabric so the color will adhere to it and not run, a process called fixing. Fixing requires a mordant or fixer; alum, lemon juice, vinegar, and baking soda are common mordants. Different mordants create different effects.

Start with white fabric, and wash it well. Add a small amount of mordant to one quart of warm water in a large stainless steel pot. (Note: Always add the mordant to the water, not vice versa.) Add the fabric to the pot, bring the liquid to a boil, and then let it simmer for 45-60 minutes.

Remove the pot from the stove to cool; then use tongs to remove the fabric from the water. Rinse the fabric in cold water until it runs clear; then blot out the extra water with paper towels.

Dying the Fabric

Take the wet fabric and put it into a stainless steel pot with the dye. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30-40 minutes (until you get the color you want), stirring gently with a wooden spoon or paddle to make sure the dye covers evenly.

Some people leave the fabric in the dye overnight without boiling it. Remove the fabric from the water with tongs. Rinse it in cold water and hang it to dry it out of the sun.

Want to Learn More About Natural Dyes?

There’s a lot more to know about making natural dyes and using them to dye fabrics. You can find many people willing to share their ideas and experience. Here are three particularly interesting websites.

Natural Dyes has a ton of great information over natural dye.

Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Making and Using Natural Dyes.

How to Dye Clothes Using Natural Methods is also a very informative website.

Photo found of Flickr, courtesy of Cygnyus921.

Crape myrtles are shrubs or small trees with big showy clusters of long-lasting flowers. Native to China and Korea, these popular plants are strong growers in the U.S. in zones 6 through 9, living as far north as protected spots in Massachusetts.

Colors range from white to dark red, including shades such as pink, lavender, magenta, orchid, and purple. Crape myrtles (also spelled “crepe myrtle” or “crapemyrtle”) play many roles in the landscape, including street tree, hedge, shrub, and specimen.

The attractive plants range in size from 18-inch dwarfs to 40-feet upright or spreading trees.

How to Prune Crape Myrtles

Despite the all-too-common practice of heavy topping crape myrtles, the plants usually look and perform better with just light pruning. Since pruning encourages new growth, pruning in late summer or early fall will result in tender shoots just in time to be nipped by cold weather.

If you prune too late in the spring you will remove the flowering stems and the plant won’t bloom. That’s why late winter or early spring it the ideal time to prune crape myrtles; they produce vigorous shoots at just the right time.

For routine, light pruning remove branches that are crossing or rubbing as well as any dead or broken branches. Crape myrtles produce an abundance of suckers, which should also be removed.

Many gardeners grow crape myrtles as compact shrubs. To achieve this cut the stems back to six inches above ground level every year before growth starts in the spring. Annual removal of twigs with diameters less than a pencil will create a medium-size bush.

To grow a crape myrtle as an upright tree, start by removing all but three-to-five strong, well-spaced limbs that are growing from ground level. As the plant matures, remove the lower lateral branches, limbing up about one-half of the way up the stems.

As with routine pruning, remove rubbing and crossing branches. Also remove suckers and shoots that grow in the center. Continue to remove suckers and lower branches as the tree grows.

While it is not necessary to remove spent flowers, on some varieties doing so may yield a second or even third flush of blooms. If you do deadhead, make the cuts just above lateral branches.

Crape Myrtle Pruning Tips

When making pruning cuts, cut to side branches or to just outside the branch collar (the swollen area where the branch meets the trunk).

Always keep pruning shears sharp and clean. Cleaning shears with alcohol between plants helps prevent transmission of diseases from plant to plant.

Want to Learn More About Crape Myrtles?

If you select the variety of crape myrtle with the growth habit and size you want you’ll have less pruning to do. This site has pictures and information to help you choose.

Here’s some great info on the Characteristics of Crape Myrtle Varieties.

These sites have everything you need to know to grow crape myrtle:

Crapemyrtle via the Clemson Cooperative Extension.

Read all about Crape Myrtle Culture from The University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.

Old nursery lore has it that you should dig a $10 hole for a $5 tree, the point being the importance of making a generous hole and planting a tree right.

More than once I’ve gone on a tree-buying spree, only to get the plants home and remember that the work has just begun; giving trees a good start by planting them the right way takes time and effort. Here’s how to do it.

Tree Planting Technique

1. If you are planting in sod, use a spade to cut through and pull up the sod.

2. Dig a hole that is twice the diameter of the root ball and the same depth (or a little shallower) than the root ball. The sides of the hole should be more vertical than sloping. Pile the soil on a tarp nearby on the ground.

3. Use a shovel or pickaxe to rough up the sides and bottom up of the hole. This will make it easier for the roots to grow into the surrounding soil.

4. Remove the tree from its container. For potted trees, lay the tree down on the ground and hit the sides and bottom of the pot with a shovel until the soil loosens up. If the tree is in burlap, untie and loosen the burlap; you don’t have to remove the burlap. But if the tree is wrapped in plastic you do have to remove all of that.

5. If the tree roots are wound in a circle or are very tight, you need to release them so they can move out into the soil; otherwise they’ll just keep growing in a ball. You can do this by slicing through the root ball with a knife or spade in a couple of places.

6. Place the root ball in the hole. Make sure the top of the ball, where the roots and trunk meet, is about ½-inch above the soil line. If you have to make a choice, it’s better for the tree to be a little too high than too low.

7. Add soil around the root ball, tamping it down to fill in the air holes. (Roots won’t travel through air pockets.) Water can help settle the soil.

8. Mound some soil around the perimeter of the hole to form a basin so the water won’t run off, and then water slowly and thoroughly.

9. Mulch around the tree to conserve water and keep weeds down. To keep insects at bay, start the mulch six inches away from the trunk. Extend it out to the drip line of the tree.

10. Newly planted trees often need watering during the growing season for the first year or two. Watch for drooping leaves or hard, caked soil. Water slowly and deeply so the water can soak into the ground.

Staking Trees

Years ago landscapers staked all newly planted trees, but the thinking on staking has changed. By the time they are ready to be planted, most trees don’t need staking, arborists say. In fact, unnecessary staking can prevent a tree from growing a strong trunk.

However, if the tree was bare root, if it is very large, or in certain soil conditions staking is a good way to support the tree until the roots anchor firmly in the ground.

If you plan to stake, drive metal or wood stakes into the ground before you plant, one on each side of the hole.

Stakes should reach up about one-third of the height of the tree. You can tie the tree to the stakes with commercial tree staking material, wide soft webbing, or fabric. Never use wire around the tree because it can dig into the trunk.

When fastening the ties to the stakes leave a little slack so the tree can move in the wind. Stakes are meant to be temporary; remove them after a year, two years tops.

Want to Learn More About Planting Trees?

The Arbor Day Foundation has video clips on the proper way to plant trees.

Trees play an important role in helping wildlife and conserving resources. That’s why the Natural Resources Conservation Service has instructions on choosing and planting trees.

The North Carolina Cooperative Extension Services has detailed information on planting trees and shrubs.