It's not a garden without some trees!

We have planted four silver birches amongst the new beech hedge along the side of our new garden area.

Although bareroot trees can only be planted in winter, potted trees such as we sell can be planted almost anytime: just avoid planting in the heat of summer and when the ground is waterlogged or frozen.

There are several approaches to planting trees, so you might prefer different methods to those we used:

3. Some people think that adding organic matter to the planting hole - such as manures, composts and soil improvers - will deter the roots from spreading out into the less fertile surrounding garden soil, as they will prefer to stay where it is nutrient-rich.

As we have low-nutrient sandy soil in Newbourne, we think the trees will need a little help. Also, as the trees are growing in pots, they already have rich soil surrounding their roots.

So as a compromise we dug our holes much bigger than needed and backfilled with compost mixed into ordinary soil, to give a graduation from the pot compost to ordinary soil.

On the higher levels of the holes we just used the unimproved garden soil as we don't want to encourage the roots to head towards the surface for nutrients.

4. People often like to use root builders to help trees and shrubs settle into new surroundings.

Traditionally bonemeal was used, which is high in phosphorous, one of the three main chemicals plant need to grow (phosphorus for the roots, nitrogen for leaves, and potassium for overall health including flowers and fruits).

Ever more popular are mycorrhizal fungi. Abundant in nature these are bought in powder form to be dusted onto the roots and planting hole to help establish a bond.


5. Have some sort of stake or cane to hand so you can check you are planting to the correct depth.

Just lay it across the hole next to the bottom of the trunk with either end on normal ground level.

8. Water in well!

Depending on weather and conditions, trees can need watering weekly for about the first year you have them, probably twice a week in the first summer.

Make sure you give a good drench so the water soaks down - you do not want roots heading towards the surface to drink from light waterings.

We used one watering can worth per tree.

First step, mark out the planting area. Stakes in the ground either end, with twine tied round them to make sure we kept straight, and a few extra canes along the way to make sure nothing got knocked out of place.

We decided on beech hedging and as we want a quick result spaced them 4 per 1 metre (approx one plant every 10").

Because our plants were going to get planted close to one another we dug a long trench rather than individual holes.

The soil at Newbourne is very light and sandy (which did make digging easy work!) so we added a little compost to the bottom of the trench, mixed in with the surrounding soil. Enriching the planting area too much can mean plant roots don't explore any further but we did think the new hedge plants would need a little goodness to help them get started.

If you are planting next to lawn we recommend getting some plastic sheeting to protect the grass from the piles of soil you will be digging out - it will be much easier to get it back into the trench once you are done without leaving a terrible mess!

To speed up the thickness and screening effect we staggered the plants either side of our guideline so they were diagonal to one another. With some hedging plants you can also get a fuller effect sooner by pulling branches horizontal and tying them to the branches of plants either side!

With a trench it is then a pretty quick job to place the plants and backfill the soil. The other benefit of having a guideline is that if you set it at ground level you can check your plants are not too deep or too high.

Then it is just a matter of watering in, making sure the plants don't dry out for the first year, and keeping the area clear of weeds and other plants. Easy!