Yesterday's common
sense ideas to help you maintain and enjoy your country home,
garden, landscape and property.
From Harper's
Monthly, 1886
The hole destined to receive a shade or fruit tree should be at
least three feet in diameter and two feet deep. It then should be
partially filled with good surface soil, upon which the tree
should stand, so that its roots could extend naturally according
to their original growth. Good fine loam should be sifted through
and over them, and they should not be permitted to come in contact
with decaying matter of coarse, unfermented manure. The tree
should be set as deeply in the soil as it stood when taken up. As
the earth is thrown gently through and over the roots it should be
packed lightly against them with the foot, and water, should the
season be rather dry and warm, poured in from time to time to
settle the fine soil about them. The surface should be levelled at
last with a slight dip toward the tree, so that spring and summer
rains may be retained directly about the roots. Then a mulch of
coarse manure is helpful, for it keeps the surface moist, and its
richness will reach the roots gradually in a diluted form. A mulch
of straw, leaves, or coarse hay is better than none at all. After
being planted, three stout stakes should be inserted firmly in the
earth at the three points of a triangle, the tree being its
center. Then by a rope of straw or some soft material the tree
should be braced firmly between the protecting stakes, and thus it
is kept from being whipped around by the wind. Should periods of
drought ensue during the growing season, it would be well to rake
the mulch one side, and saturate the ground around the young tree
with an abundance of water, and the mulch afterward spread as
before.
From The Horticulturist, 1857
If you want to be successful in transplanting, don't be afraid of
working in dull weather. If you are shy of a "Scotch mist," buy an
India-rubber Macintosh. Nothing is so cruel, to many sorts of
trees, as to let their tender fibers patch up in a dry wind, or a
bright sun. Such weather may be fun to you, but 'tis death to
them.
When you are planting a tree or shrub, don't be penny-wise and
pound-foolish; in other words, so anxious to have it look large,
as to be unwilling to cut off a single inch of its top to balance
the loss of roots. Remember that if your tree would grow six
inches if left "unshortened," it would grow twelve if properly
shortened, besides making far healthier shoots and bigger leaves,
to say nothing of its being five times as likely not to die.
