When planting a shrub the secret is to make sure that the ground is properly prepared to give your plants a decent head start.
First of all decide the correct location for your purchased shrub; you can identify this generally from the label or the advice given to you from the garden centre staff.
Sort the Weeds out
Once you have identified your location, it is always best to clear any weeds that are in and around where you are about to plant. Pull the weeds out, getting as much root out of the area as possible.
Grab hold of your spade and dig your hole, generally dig the hole about 20% bigger than the plant container itself. Then once you have cleared out the soil you can fork the base. It is best really rather than a compact base to lighten it up to be light and fluffy so that when the plants are producing roots they grow down easily.
Compost
Then add some compost, which is good for the new plant. You can either purchase compost in the garden centre or use some peat. It really acts as a base so instead of the new roots of the plant hitting stone or solid clay they are going into something soft, comfy and cosy to give it a head start.
Ready to Plant
Next, tease the plant out of the pot, it is usually better to squeeze the sides of the pot which loosens the root ball and helps you to slide the pot off easier.
Stand the plant into the hole, the surface of the compost of the plant should be the same level as the surface of the soil in your border, planting it too deep can seriously inhibit or damage the plant when growing.
Then situate your plant into position and infill with a little fresh compost again for those side roots to grow in to a nice soft area.Then firm well in, I usually use the heel of my wellies pushing in to make sure that the same surface of the compost of the pot is the same surface level of your soil.
Water well
Give it a good watering; invariably some soil does filter down as the soil becomes wet so you may have a few gaps. All you need to do is top up with fresh compost.
If it is a tall plant it is advisable to stake it so that the wind does not blow it out of its hole or maybe loosen it and cause damage to the new plant roots trying to get established.
Planting a shrub is as simple as that …….. great results with little effort.
