Planting and Caring for Pine Trees

Whether you have decided to go with a live tree this holiday season, or you are looking for a nice addition to your landscape, you need to know how to take care of it properly. These trees not only add a nice wind break and privacy screen to your home, they can also create a wonderful aesthetic look that you will love. In order to get the most out of your new pine trees you need to know how to plant them, and ensure that they are getting the care that they need. Luckily planting and caring for pine trees is not all that difficult.

• Know your tree. The first step in planting and caring for your pine trees is to know what type of tree it actually is. This may sound a little simple, but surprisingly there are more trees out there than you would realize. An example of this is to look around at your local Christmas tree lot where you can find things like a Douglas Pine, a Spruce, or some other kind of tree. Some trees can grow to be as large as over a hundred feet tall, and up to twelve feet or so wide.
• Location. Location is an important part of planting and caring for a pine tree in quite a few ways. One reason that it is important because you don't want your tree to grow into your neighbors yard, as well as making sure that it won't damage your foundation, power, or water lines. You also want to make sure that it will get enough light, wind, and so on to help ensure that it grows as well as it possibly can.
• Soil. Generally speaking pines will require soil that will have good drainage, and not allow the ground to become too soggy when it rains or you water the tree. Don't let the soil be too sandy though, since the bottom of the hole needs to be as firm or possible so that the tree will not settle and grow crooked. When digging the hole to plant the tree, ensure that the hole is only as deep as the root ball is big, and that the hole is no more than twice the size of the ball.
• General care. After you have first planted the tree, ensure that you are watering it properly for the first few months. On the average you should only need to water the tree twice a week with deep watering. On top of this, you will only need to feed the tree once a year with some slow release fertilizer. Try to limit any pruning to the cooler months of the year so that you can avoid any possible damage to the tree. The ideal times would be during the early winter or spring time.