Please use this guide to ensure success with your new plants. Even if you are an experienced gardener, reviewing these guidelines can help your plants thrive!
UNBOXING YOUR NEW PLANTS
When your order arrives, first carefully remove the plants from the outer cardboard box (but keep your cardboard box to use as mulch around your new plant when you plant it in the ground!). Check the tag on each plant to make sure that what you have received is what we confirmed on the enclosed packing slip. If your plants arrived in a nursery pot, remove the wrapping material that keeps the soil contained. If the pot seems light and the soil seems dry, water the plant well. Plants can remain in their container until ready to plant and just be sure the soil does not dry out. If the weather is cool or if your plant is dormant and without foliage, it will require minimal watering. Over-watering is the most common cause of death of containerized plants.
*Most plants shipped between Fall-Spring will be dormant and may not have leaves upon arrival. While this can be alarming, it is completely normal for the plants to lose their leaves and go dormant for winter. You can check on the health of the plant by scratching a small bit of the outer layer of bark on the main trunk. If the cambium layer underneath is green, then the plant is alive, healthy, and dormant. If the layer appears brown, please contact us within 7 days of arrival at hello@newearthnursery.com*
PLANTING IN GROUND
(For plant-specific site recommendations, refer to the description of Site and Soil for each plant on our website.) It's best to plant on a cloudy, not-too-hot nor freezing day. Plants will do best if the weather is overcast or raining for several days following planting. For container plants, remove the pot and gently loosen the root system. If it is very dense, lay the plant on the ground and press hard on the root ball with the palm of your hand to loosen it. Tease some roots out of the root ball and trim back any overly long roots. For most trees, we do not recommend disturbing the roots overly much. Herbaceous perennials are a little more forgiving.
If your planting site is covered by grass, remove a thin layer of sod in a circle 2-3 ft. in diameter. This will prevent the grass from competing with your new plants for water and nutrients. Begin by digging a hole that is at least twice as wide and the same depth as the roots. A deep crater is not good because as the disturbed soil settles, the plant will sink. The soil should be moist. Rough up the sides and bottom of the hole with your shovel so that your plants roots can easily spread into the native soil. Fill the hole with the soil shoveled out from the hole and work it around the roots. You can amend your back-fill soil with some finished compost or leaf mold. When the hole is full, tamp down the soil then water your plant in well. Your new plant is now ready to grow! Mulch the whole area with pieces of the cardboard box the plant arrived in, straw, wood chips, or shredded bark. This will help keep the soil cool and increase water retention.
(There is some debate about how deep to plant your trees. We plant trees at the depth they were planted in the nursery or at most two or three inches deeper. If yours is a grafted or budded tree, make sure the graft union remains at least two inches above the ground.)
WATERING AND MULCHING
For all plants, periodic deep watering of the whole root zone is far superior to frequent light watering. Deep watering encourages deep root growth, making your plant stronger and much less susceptible to drought stress. Do not water lightly each day because this results in a wet surface and dry root zone. The soil should be moist but not soggy to a depth of about a foot for most growing plants. The top inch or two can feel dry, and the plant still be well watered. The trick is to have the water available where the roots are. In hotter and sunnier areas, a mulch of straw, bark, wood chips. etc. can greatly ease the burden of summer watering and improve soil fertility. In our experience, far more plants are damaged or die from over watering than under watering. We recommend 3-5 gallons per week either through rain or irrigation and increased watering during hotter periods.