Tree care after planting (TLC)

You have so far invested time and money to get the trees in the ground so itis logical to look after them as best you can.

Weed growth is bad news for the young tree as the weeds compete for water and their fine roots can, in light rain fall, stop any moisture getting to the tree roots. There are two ways to deal with this - you can very carefully spray or you can cultivate the 1 meter diameter circle. Well it is not really cultivation I suppose but it involves using a hoe.
Every 2-3 weeks I would hoe around the trees to remove any weeds. But in a dry season this hoeing achieved another very important function, it kept the moisture level closer to the surface. When you hoe, you loosen the top few centimeters of soil which traps air and so this tends to insulate the surface of the soil from high temperatures. My neighbour, retired farmer Norman Calder told me that in the "old days" they would fallow paddocks but grub them every 2-3 weeks to maintain the moisture levels in the soil. It quite amazing how effective this is.

Rabbits/hares etc. - if they are a problem :( you can use proprietary methods like columns of translucent plastic or anti rabbit sprays. but I have a system that works very well. It consists of buying the cheapest white acrylic paint you can find, buying some dried, powdered egg yolk (they use it in catering)and getting one of those big "thirsty" wall paper brushes made of hemp like stuff.

Add about a cup of egg powder to 2-3 liters of acrylic paint - mix it in well in a bucket. Then take your bucket and brush and with the paint brush full of the mixture flick it so the mixture spreads on the ground. Flick around the base of the tree lightly so some gets on the trunk and leaves. If you have large stones lying there of even clods of earth give them a good coating. If you notice areas in the fence line where animals have made a track throug the grass etc. then dab a bit here as well. I don't know why it works but it does. The colour aids in this as the rabbits and hares obviously get the message and recognise that the area is "unsavoury". If you have a lot of rain then redo in 2-3 weeks but otherwise it can last for more than a month. Hoeing can disturb it but if you are careful it can remain on top.

Now I am sorry to say not all trees are going to survive - this is a fact of life. If you have a good season to start off with then survival will be higher, but some will still die for no apparent reason.

Persistance pays dividends and I persisted for about 7-9 years, replacing trees that had succumbed to the environment and ensuring there were no weeds etc. Don't give up and you will be rewarded. It is during this phase of development that I coined the saying "There is no reward so sweet as that which is hard earnt". Today, 29 years later, I get huge satisfaction from our shelter belts and with most of neigbours about us planting as well it is amazing how this has developed a much more habitable microniche!

One thing I cannot understand is why people go to the effort to plant trees for shelter just to ignore them and because of environment, weeds, animals etc the trees struggle to survive let alone grow.

Next some ideas for fencing especially if you have horses...................