How To Dig A Hole

Rule of Thumb: Make your hole 2 times the width of the tree, shrub, or perennial rootball and 2 inches deeper. That's because, in Santa Fe, where hardpan lurks a couple of feet under the surface in some places, plant roots tend to go sideways as much as they do downwards.

1. Take all the dirt out of the hole.
2. Using a spading fork, loosen the bottom 1 foot of the dirt in the hole.
3. Mix the soil you took out of the hole with soil amendments. (See "What Kind of Soil Do You Have?" below for amendment suggestions.)
4. Make a little mound of soil inside the bigger hole, spread the roots of the plant over the little mound, and backfill with the amended soil.
5. Do not tamp down with your feet. Water in the plant, allowing the water to settle the soil. Otherwise, your tromping will force the oxygen out of the soil, and plants, like us, need oxygen to thrive. Watering in with a solution of SuperThrive™ vitamin-hormone supplement will greatly reduce transplant shock.

The amendments you mix with your soil depend on the kind of soil you have. In Santa Fe, we have mostly heavy clay soils; in some places, we have sandy soils. Here's how to tell what kind of soil you have: Water a patch of your soil. When the water's drained away, scoop up a handful of the soil and squeeze it tight in your fist. Then open your palm and observe the squeezed lump. Does it just sit there in a little ball? Your soil is probably heavy clay. Does it collapse the moment your fingers release their pressure on it? Your soil is probably sandy. Does it crumble around the edges but stay reasonably coherent? Then you have that most precious of treasures, sandy loam.

Soil Amendments: For heavy clay soils, mix the soil you take out of your planting hole with 1/2 the same volume of crushed lava rock, crusher fines, or fine gravel. Do not use sand. Sand plus clay plus Santa Fe summer sun equals bricks. For sandy soils, mix 1 part soil with 1 part compost, like our Payne's Soil Conditioner cotton burr compost.

Fertilizers: If planting in the fall, don't  add quick-release fertilizer to your soil. It will encourage your transplants to put out new soft growth that the frost will cut down. Instead, add a slow-release organic food like Yum-Yum™ Mix, Peace of Mind™, or one of the Michael Melendrez soil foods to the planting hole. These will give your plants a nutrient boost during the winter, when they are busy underground building new root systems. And whenever you plant, don't apply fertilizer at higher rates than those recommended on the container. Overly generous fertilizer applications can burn plant roots, leading to dieback of aboveground parts. Furthermore, too much nitrogen (nitrogen is the first number on the fertilizer label) can encourage lush, weak growth that is prone to damage by insect pests and disease.

Watering: For the first month after planting your tree, shrub, or perennial, water it deeply 3 times a week. Gradually reduce the watering to 2 times a week. Then, after the first hard frost, reduce watering to 1 time a week. Most plants die in the winter here NOT because of frost but because of lack of watering. Even if we're lucky, and have a wet winter, you'll need to water your plants, particularly the first year after planting, when they are still putting down roots.

Mulch: Mulching will help conserve moisture around your newly planted treasure. Peat moss is a lousy mulch; it blows away and adds no nutrients to the soil. Bark mulches are OK, but they rob the soil of nitrogen as they rot, so sprinkle some bone meal under your bark mulch before you lay it down. (Payne's Soil Conditioner makes a good mulch.) Put down at least 2 inches of mulch; 4 inches is better (it will rot down faster than you'd think). Don't put mulch right up against a tree trunk; it will encourage disease and insect pests. Put it at least 2 inches away and as far out as the drip line (the imaginary line drawn from the outer canopy of the tree down to the ground).