{"id":12800,"date":"2014-04-07T02:42:57","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T09:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=12800"},"modified":"2014-04-02T03:02:54","modified_gmt":"2014-04-02T10:02:54","slug":"how-to-dig-a-hole-for-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/how-to-dig-a-hole-for-plants\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Dig a Hole for Plants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dig a \u00c2\u00a310 hole for a \u00c2\u00a35 plant!<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/25596455@N00\/4548831462\/\" title=\"tree planting at United House of Prayer by nowyou33, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4007\/4548831462_1a7346d8fa.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"tree planting at United House of Prayer\"><\/a><br \/>\n&#8216;A big hole for a big tree.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>It is often the easy gardening jobs that can be done better by a professional gardener but can you dig a better hole for planting?<br \/>\nFor a long time I have just plonked plants in willy-nilly but then I started thinking about the place my plants were going to <strong>live for the rest of their lives<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>Holes are Homes for Your Plants Roots<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Roots anchor a plant safely in the soil.<\/li>\n<li>The soil then provides water, air and nutrition for the plants growth.<\/li>\n<li>Most roots are nearer the surface than you think. 95% of tree roots are in the top foot of soil.<\/li>\n<li>The best soil is at the top. Sub soil is underneath the top soil and can be very compacted and lacking in humus and or drainage.<\/li>\n<li>If top soil in thin you can break up the sub soil but do not bring it to the surface.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=13488\">Read about healthy and unhealthy roots<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Tips on Plant Holes<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The hole should be appropriate for the plant your are planting both now and in the future as your plant grows.<\/li>\n<li>Dig the hole at least twice as wide as your root ball but not necessarily twice as deep.<\/li>\n<li>Most plant pots are round but roots want to have free reign. Aim for a square or oblong hole to discourage roots turning round and round.<\/li>\n<li>Break up the bottom of the hole to aid drainage.<\/li>\n<li>Add compost particularly if the soil is dry and sandy.<\/li>\n<li>A slow release fertilizer can be added and mixed with the soil you will use for back filling. Bone meal, Growmore or blood fish and bone are suitably organic.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Tips for Planting into Holes <\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Plants grown in pots should be planted at the same depth. Put a cane across the hole and nestle the plant in place so the soil level showing on the plant is level with the top of the hole.<\/li>\n<li>Clematis are an exception to the plant it level rule, they are best planted 6&#8243; lower than their previous planting depth.<\/li>\n<li>Trees and larger plants will need staking. Put your stake in place first so roots are not damaged.<\/li>\n<li>Roots that are twisted around the growing pot should be teased out. Compacted soil around the root ball should be gently separated.<\/li>\n<li>Pour water into the hole and let it drain away before planting. Keep trees and shrubs well watered for the first year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ilri\/4918774049\/\" title=\"Apollo Habtamu Planting his tree at the KMIS tree planting day by ILRI, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4080\/4918774049_cb13ce9a10.jpg\" width=\"358\" height=\"500\" alt=\"Apollo Habtamu Planting his tree at the KMIS tree planting day\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Credits<br \/>\ntree planting at United House of Prayer by nowyou33 CC BY-NC 2.0<br \/>\nApollo Habtamu Planting his tree at the KMIS tree planting day by ILRI CC BY-NC-SA 2.0<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Holes are Homes for Your Plants Roots and a bit of care will be repaid over the seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gardening"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}