Planting trees around your home can quickly improve the curb appeal of your property. In addition, mature trees can provide a lot of shade that can help keep your home in Puyallup comfortable in the summer without having to use your air conditioner as much. On top of that, the tree roots help hold the soil in your yard in place, which helps prevent erosion.
With all of these benefits in mind, it makes sense to plant a few well-placed trees around your property. When planting trees, though, it’s important to keep several details in mind that will ensure a safe and effective process. To help ensure your trees survive and thrive, here are a few best practices for planting trees around your home.
Plant Carefully
Trees planted too close to a drain field are a common source of damage to septic systems. Tree roots can infiltrate your drain field and grow into the pipes, causing them to clog or split, cause foul odors and create unhealthy conditions in your yard that could require expensive repairs. You can prevent this kind of damage to your drain field with a little bit of planning and the use of proper techniques.
Planting Safely
While trees provide many benefits for your family and the environment, you want to ensure that you don’t run into any problems while you’re planting your new trees. Before putting a shovel in the ground, it’s important that you are aware of the location of underground utilities and septic tanks to ensure you don’t damage these items when you dig.
To help in this effort, you can call 811, a free utility-locating service that will alert representatives from local utility companies of your intent to dig on your property. As needed, they will send out representatives to detect underground utility lines and mark them so you know exactly where you can and can’t dig.
Additionally, it’s a good idea to involve [company_name] in the locating process to check for any septic system components that could be near where you want to plant your trees. Since a broken septic system could be quite expensive to fix, it’s important to protect it as best you can.
Once you know the location of the underground utilities, you still need to be careful about where you plant your trees. After all, the goal of planting a tree is to have it grow quite large.
Keep in mind that growth occurs under the ground as well as above the ground. Since tree roots can wreak havoc on utilities of all types, make sure to put plenty of space between new trees and any known utilities so that you don’t run into issues down the road.
Dig Deep
Once you’ve contacted [company_name] and local utilities to look for any obstacles, it’s time to plant your trees. The key when planting a tree is to make the hole deep enough to ensure that the entire root ball is covered. At the same time, you don’t want to dig so deep that the trunk is buried as that can cause rot in the flesh of the tree. This can cause the tree to die.
While digging down, you also want to dig out. The main purpose of digging out is to loosen up the soil around the tree so that the roots can grow more easily. This will help in the establishment of a healthy root system that helps your tree thrive.
After you have dug a hole that you think is wide and deep enough, remove the tree from its container and place the root ball in the hole. If you notice the tree sitting too low in the hole, remove the tree and add some dirt back into the hole until the tree is at the proper height.
When you fill in the hole, lightly pack the soil as you go to ensure it has enough stability to support the tree before natural settling takes place. When you get to the top of the hole, make sure not to mound up dirt on the trunk of the tree as this will have the same effect as burying the trunk underground.
That’s not to say that you shouldn’t create a mound around the tree, however. Instead of mounding the dirt on the tree, you should create a circle of dirt around the tree approximately 12 inches away from the trunk. This mound will help hold in moisture and ensure it drains to the root ball where the tree needs it most. Once this step is completed, you can cover the area in a layer of mulch to help retain moisture.
At [company_name], we want your home to be as beautiful and safe as possible. In addition to septic tank location, we can install and repair septic tanks of all types and sizes. We also offer residential plumbing repairs, drain cleaning, and water heater installation. You can have confidence in our 24/7 emergency service because we pride ourselves in offering excellent service. With over 10,500 glowing reviews, there’s no doubt that using [company_name] is a great choice for your plumbing needs. Give us a call today to help take the next step in making your house a home.
