Schlatter Family Site

Planting the
Zelkova Tree

These photos show a condensed version of how I plant trees using the zelkova tree as an example.

In the first photo, the tree is in the 25-gallon plastic tub in which it was delivered by the nursery.  I put a blue tarp in my yellow garden cart, set the tree in its tub into the tarp, and ran about 3 inches of water into the tarp to keep the tree watered before I planted it.

We decided where we wanted the tree -- I pulled the cart around the yard while Rose looked from the porch and told me where to put the tree.  The wooden stake marks where the tree will be.  Note the fluorescent red marking paint in a circle around the stake -- that's the diameter of the hole -- twice the diameter of the root ball.

Here's the hole -- 42 inches across, 25 inches deep.  The root ball was 17 inches tall, so, I made the hole 1.5 times 17 deep -- 25 inches.  Then -- I mixed the last 8 inches of soil from the hole with compost.  The orange tool resting in the hole is a battery-powered Black & Decker tiller that I used to mix the dirt and compost.  After the soil and compost were thoroughly mixed, I tamped it down firmly and the hole was then ready to receive the tree.

A neighbor and I set the tree (weighed about 125 pounds) into the hole.  I cut away the plastic tub holding the root ball and we got the tree plumb.  Note the soil that I removed from the hole is piled on the blue tarp behind the hole.  The wheelbarrow is filled with compost -- I have about 5 cubic yards of compost piled up on the rear of my lot that I use for various purposes.  I Then mixed a wheelbarrow full of soil from the hole and compost -- half and half.  Then, that wheelbarrow load was shoveled into the hole and tamped down firmly.  It took four wheelbarrow loads to fill the hole -- the next photo shows the finished product -- still need to stake the tree and apply mulch over the soil.  Planting this tree took me about four hours -- digging the hole, mixing soil, setting tree in the hole, filling the hole -- I did it all by myself except for lifting the tree out of the cart into the hole.