Friday 12 February 2016

On the Move: Replanting Deciduous Trees & Shrubs

Winter is a good time of year to move deciduous trees and shrubs that have either outgrown their original space or are struggling in their current location.

When planting, as tempting as it is to design a garden with plants perfectly in location, at Hedgehoggs Gardening we usually try to give plants some room to grow into so we're not replanting and moving things every year. But there comes a time when a little plant has had a significant growth spurt and no longer fits its bed and needs to be relocated.

As experts in planting, we analyse soil, light and water conditions before planting plants but despite this sometimes even we get it wrong and a plant won't like it's allocated spot. As we mentioned in a previous post, if your plant isn't thriving in its current location, it's best to move it to a better spot before it decides to give up on its own.

Now is the perfect time of year to move trees that have lost their leaves.

When moving large plants, make sure you lift plants using a proper lifting technique and enlist some help from a friend (or give Hedgehoggs a call!) if you need it.  It takes a lot of effort and strength to move plants because you want to take as much of the root ball and soil as possible.

Moving a plant now makes it more likely that the plant's new root structure will grow and expand into the new soil around it, helping resestablish the plant, once spring comes and it begins to grow again.