Study Guide
In this topic, you will be learning about the final step in creating a
sustainable landscape, landscape installation. Watch the video for this
section entitled Sustainable Landscape Installation. After watching the
video, you should be able to answer the following questions:
1. What are the steps in planting a tree or shrub?
2. What are some important criteria for purchasing the best
landscape tree or shrub for your landscape garden?
3. What size and shape should a planting hole be? What is the most
common mistake made when planting woody plants?
4. When is it most appropriated to purchase larger or smaller plant
sizes?
5. What is back filling the soil?
6. When should amendments be mixed with soil back fill?
7. Where should fertilizers be placed with regard to the planting
hole?
8. How should a young transplanted tree be cared for?
9. What signs should you look for when buying a woody plant grown
is a container?
10.How should a woody plant be removed from a container?
11.What should you do if a plant is root-bound in it container prior to
planting?
12.How long does is normally takes for landscape trees or shrubs to
become established in a landscape?
Video: Sustainable Landscape Installation
● A sustainable landscape in the outdoors can provide years of benefits, satisfaction and
enjoyment for people
● Use of proper plant installation techniques using best horticulture practices will allow you
to have the best results
Three things for a good landscape
● How to identify and select the very best trees and shrubs for your landscape garden
when you go to a retail nursery
● What are the very best techniques that you can use to play your plants into the ground
○ Into the desert soil
● How to take care of your plants during that period of time after you’ve installed them that
we call the plant establishment period
Today most landscape trees and shrubs were initially grown in plant nurseries in containers
Five tips for selecting trees and shrubs
1. Avoid impulsive purchases
● Some nurseries have plants for sale that will not grow well in our desert climate
and harsh soil conditions
○ Not all plants grow well in our desert climate
○ This is tue within large retail chain stores
● Do your homework before you buy
● Make sure plant is acclimated to harsh desert conditions
2. Smaller nursery plant sizes are almost always better for your landscape
● Skip over a larger plant
● Smaller trees and shrubs have an easier time becoming established after
planting
○ This is because smaller plants are younger and better able to handle the
shock of being transplanted from a container into the desert soil that older
plants are
● Especially true with desert-adapted trees and shrubs. Whether they’re native to
the sonoran desert or not
● One exception to this tip is for plants that have a slow rate of growth
○ Ex: Texas mountain laurel
○ You may want to select a tree or shrub specimen at a nursery growing in
a larger sized container
3. Avoid purchase of nursery plants that been growing in a container for too long
● Normally nursery growers will transplant or will “bump up” trees and shrubs from
a smaller to a larger sized containers according to a predetermined production
cycle
● When these plants or shrubs are transported to the retail nursery outlet they’re
sometimes not sold as quickly as planned
○ When this happens, plants are left in same sized containers for too long
● This causes the plants roots to become heavily compacted together and may
start growing around each other causing the plant to become “Root bound”
○ Often nurseries will sell “root bound” plants at a discounted price
● A discount plant price might reflect a plant of lower quality
○ Plants have a very difficult to near impossible time growing new roots
outward into the soil as soon as they should after they’ve been planted in
the ground
● This condition is particularly dangerous with trees
○ Prone to blow over due to high winds (monsoon season
● If you buy a root bound tree you can help it out by taking a box cutter or sharp
knife and making a series of vertical cuts around the root ball so that you’re
cutting through the encircled roots
○ Do this for the bottom of the rootball.
■ This practice is called “scarifying the root ball”
○ By cutting the roots you will disrupt the trees circular growth pattern and
cause new roots to grow directionally outward into the surrounding soil
4. Select and purchase only healthy plants
● While most plants at a nursery are usually healthy and in good shape this isn’t
always the good case
● Don’t purchase plants with
○ Yellowing leaves
■ Sign of incorrect watering or poor plant nutrition
■ If soil in the pot is overly moist or has a funky smell, walk away
○ Insects or diseases
■ Ex: fine webbing, chewed leaves or black spots on the leave
■ This can inadvertently affect other plants in your yard
○ Weeds
■ Avoid plants with weeds around the base of the pot
■ Weeds can spread throughout your yard
5. Purchase locally-grown trees and shrubs
● Many of the plants that you’ll find in retail nursery outlets were initially grown in
california
● Trees and shrubs who grew up in one climate and then transported to another
climate for sale sometimes have a tough time adapting to the new climate
○ Unless they’ve had ample time to be “hardened off” and adjust to new
weather conditions
Planting guidelines where to purchase plants
1. Garden center (or local outlet center)
● If one’s on a tight budget and knows exactly what tree or shrub to buy ahead of
time
● Have the least expensive plants
● Sometimes come from local growers
● Be careful if you do because not all the plants there can be grown successfully in
local desert climate
2. Retail nursery
● Prices may be a little bit higher but you have a higher chance of coming home
with a better quality plant
● Sustainable tip!!!
○ Unique trees and shrubs can be purchased at local public garden plant sales
events
Installing Process: Planting hole
● Begins with digging the proper planting hole
○ Mistake that’s made by most people is to dig the hole deeper than it should be
and now as wide as it needs to be
● Planting hole guidelines
1. Dig the hole only as deep as the height of the container
2. Dig the hole at least 2 to 3 times wider than the width of the container
● Better if the planting hole is irregular with rough sides. Doesn’t need to be
a perfect circle
3. Use the soil dug from the planting hole to backfill into the hole after placing the
plant into the hole
● You need a firm foundation and when settling happens the plant almost goes down into
the ground
Installing Process: Proper technique for planting a tree
1. Protect the plant
● Understand that after planting it is all about the growth of the root system
● Protect the roots!!!
2. Place hand on top of soil surface, Turn over, Lift the container off, using gravity to pull it
off
3. Always position your plant so the best side is pointing outward and forward towards the
view scape
● Scruff it off, encourage roots to grow outwards
4. Prior to putting backfill in, you want to provide some water into the hole to wet the soil
● Don’t fill it up the whole say. Just need the wetting process to get going
5. Backfill hole
● Make sure to keep it debris free
○ No rocks or other debris
● Apply it around the plant
6. Make sure to not leave any air pockets because that’s a potential for settling to occur
● Pat it down gently
Sustainable tip
● Desert-adapted trees and shrubs grow best without organic amendments added to their
backfill soil at planting
○ Do not add to newly planted trees and shrubs (especially those native to this
area)
● Exceptions to this recommendation
○ Installing turf grass, fruit trees, citrus, some deciduous shade trees (i.e, ash, elm
and flowering pear), most of your temperate zone exotic shrubs that are not
native to this areas
When can trees and shrubs be planted?
● Tres and shrubs grown in nursery containers can be planted into our desert soils at any
time of year
● Fall is the best time for planting
○ Results in the shortest time for trees and shrubs to grow out into surrounding soil
○ Not immediately exposed to the heat of summer
Watering
● Amounts and frequencies that you’ll water newly-installed trees or shrubs depend on
○ Plant size
■ irrigate more heavily and more frequently if you’ve planted larger trees or
shrubs
○ Type of soil
■ irrigate more heavily and more frequently if you have sandy soil
○ Time of year
■ irrigate more heavily and more frequently if you’ve planted during warmer
times of year
● Water new landscape plants to keep soil evenly moist for first several weeks after
planting to encourage new root growth and help avoid transplant shock or failure
Sustainable tip
● Increase landscape water conservation by 90% if you add a 2-inch layer of mulch to the
top of the soil
● When you do add fertilizers to your landscape soil, always remember to follow fertilizer
instructions
How long does it take for a tree/shrub to be established
● Shrub establishment can take from 12-24 months
● Tree establishment can take from 3-4 years
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