Planting a bush by myself – any suggestions?

Exhibit A: Hole.

Roughly 1m x 1m x 0.5m

Exhibits B & C: Unbelievable volume of resulting waste:

Exhibit D: Small bush to get out of pot and place in hole.

Current hopeful thinking is: Tip onto its side onto something so it kind of pivots, hammer pot off, release roots, and somehow do it all so that it can then be laid in a perfect position to roll until the rootball falls into the hole, in a 360 degree position that it need to be at.

Current realisitic thinking it: I’m going to end up in hospital tomorrow.

Just put it in the hole.

any suggestions?

Chap your neighbour’s door and ask for a hand.

Might be easier to cut off the (plastic?) pot if the plant is well rooted in. Otherwise go for it, if you can roll it around the garden I don’t really see the problem.

Lay on its side next to hole, cut plastic pot (it may have wooden supports inside pot which will make tapping the pot off impossible) off, break up the roots a little bit, lift up and tip / pivot in to hole, half fill with soil and heel in, fill with rest of soil and heel in again. Done many and much bigger plants like this on my own, easy.

edit

pot looks a bit bigger than 50cm deep, make sure hole is deep enough

Where do you live Bear, may be a stw member could lend you a hand for a biscuit or two?

Chop the bush into manageable pieces and do it a bit at a time

That’s a tree. 🙂

Roll it into the hole in the pot,after you’ve put a few holes in the bottom& sides.

Exhibit D: Small bush

You and I need a discussion about the use the words “small” and “bush”.

Get the neighbour to help.

Meanwhile, Mrs bearnecessities has mysteriously “left the country”

I could ask the next door neigbour, although as well as we get on, I don’t think she’d be pleased.

I’m also not entirely sure an extra pair of hands would help that much – the garden centre sent 5 blokes to deliver it, and they were utterly borked just moving it 15m from the van to the garden!

Done many and much bigger plants like this on my own, easy.

The **** you have!

Sadly only pic I have, 30 2-3m tall trees, delivered to site with a Hiab, but moved to planting area and planted

Make sure that you water it well before you take it out of the pot and then again when it has been planted as well.

As mentioned above, the root ball needs to be opened up, if the tree has been in that pot for any length of time, the roots will have become fairly compacted, so they need to be freed up.

I have a little apple tree that came in a pot. My step-dad decided to replant it in the garden, but it never seemed to do very well, so last November I dug it up, which wasn’t difficult! All he’d done was pulled the tree out of the pot, scraped a bit of a hole and plonked the tree in it and left it. The poor thing’s roots were compressed into a solid ball, which took a fair bit of breaking up, and then I dug a much deeper hole, put compost in, put the tree in so the roots were well below ground level, then more compost and gave it lots of water. This spring it produced more flowers than it had for years, and lots of apples. They’re fairly small, but the tree needs a few years to really get itself established. They are delicious, though, very firm, juicy and sweet with a slight tartness. Really lovely to be able to pick and eat my own apples now.

Looking at that hole, I reckon it needs to be at least half as deep again, if not twice as deep, so that plenty of compost can be put in the bottom and around the roots. Lay it on it’s side, with to pot over the hole, get the pot off, break open the roots with a trowel or fork, then push it upright into the hole. Easy peasy. 😬

Im with you Matt… I was looking at the small bush in the pot next to the pergola set thingy not the massive thing in the foreground maybe perrgola is a long way away?

def no gardener but shouldnt you break the bottom of the hole up a bit it looks like black concrete!

Just put it in the hole.

That.

Yup,that bush needs more hole. Give it a bit of blood and bone in the base too. Roll close by, remove the ball from the container and give it a good titivation to encourage it to grow big and strong. Keep it moist at all times.You may be able to tie some kind of strap or leash around the stalk to help you with the manhandling.

For clarity, more of my painstakingly-laid patio will be lifted tomorrow and much more soil dug to give a better planting area. Many bags of John Innes No3 are on standby.

I still have bo idea how to get the f***** into position.

I couldn’t stop laughing after you exhibited your A hole

😂

Tip it over very slightly and you should be able to roll it on the rim of the base, same way you move big cylinders, you might need to move it in a series of arcs depending how strong you are, get it up to the edge of the hole. Tip it flat and remove the pot, cut it off if it wont tap off easily. Lift the bush upright and tip it into the hole, backfill and water. I would put in a load of compost to feed it until it develops a root network.

When breaking up the roots, look how they lie; if they are circling round, because the pot has restricted them, you must break them out of the circle.  If you don’t,  they will keep circling and not spread,  so you end up with a solid root ball and the bush never grows.

Roll it into the hole and sort it out when it’s in.

Rich, Have you managed this?

If not gives a shout I’ll bob up….being a short arse though I may not be able to offer masses of help!!

being a short arse though I may not be able to offer masses of help!!

You can take photos/video of him so we can all have a laugh 🙂

from a low camera angle……very arty!!

from a low camera angle

There are laws about this now.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44504656

Top tip – work out which way round you want it and tie a ribbon or something around the bit you want to face away from the fences, then you don’t have the faff of getting it into the hole only to find you’ve got a bunch of scabby bare branches facing you.

Agree that the hole looks a bit small.  Also sink a lenght of drainpipe vertically into the hole as well so you can just pour water into that and ensure you get water to the roots – looks like it might struggle to get much moisture while establishing with the fence, shed and paving.  After all that work you won’t enjoy a tatty bush with a dry hole.

 After all that work you won’t enjoy a tatty bush with a dry hole.

fnnnnar

Thanks Neil, saw that offer too late! 🙂 7 bags of compost, some hilarious ‘rolling a 13ft bush around the garden’  and a few swearies later – it’s in situ.

Looks sodding ridiculous.

Sorry MOAB…..no upshrubbing!

No worries Rich.