North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Mauch1@aol.com]

I lift the sod, dig my hole, Plant the tree up to the soil level with 
generally not using the sod (or only taking the lowest root zone.  Then I use 
the sod (upside down) as the raised ring around the planting hole that many 
books recommend having for watering. 

Chris Mauchline
SE PA, zone 6
40° 5' N    75° 51'W
~650 ft elevation

<<Because of our lack of snow the ground is thawing early and I am out tree 
planting today. My ideal method of planting is to have killed the sod the 
year before with some kind of covering. My real method however, is that that 
rarely gets done, so I cut straight down in a circle past the sod (1 meter 
dia. in today's instance), then slide the shovel underneath toward the 
center just below the grass' roots. I then cut this in half and lift each 
slab of sod off to the side, dirt side up. Plant the young tree next, 
mounding dirt around it up to ground level.  Then in a couple days the sod 
slabs have dried enough I can shake about half of the dirt back where it 
came from. In another month or so the sod slabs have dried / died and I put 
the half circles, roots up, back in their original place around the tree as 
a mulch.
Just curious how other folk do it. Happy planting, Del

>>