Wet the Soil First Before Digging the Planting Hole

Q. I'm finally having my empty backyard landscaped. It's the typical subdivision super hard "soil". Should it be amended somehow before the new plants are added? More than just in the hole where the plant goes, I mean.

Wet the soil first a few days before digging. Moist soil helps to make it softer. Mix compost with the soil taken from the hole by about 25 to 33%.

A. Some of the landscape soils are hard, hard, hard! Wet the area to be planted with an hour of sprinkler water from a hose and sprinkler a few days before digging. This water will help make it softer to dig. I would recommend amending the soil in the planting hole with compost or another amendment a few days after it is wetted. Amend it between 25 to 33% with compost (one shovelful of compost to 3 or 4 shovelfuls of soil). The hole for the plant should be dug and amended to a width three times the size of the diameter of the container or roots. Then check it for drainage. The hole should drain water overnight. Wet amended soil should be at least chocolate brown in color.

Holes located where fruit trees are to be grown are wetted and amended with compost by about 25 to 33%.

            The hole does not have to be dug deeper than the container but should be dug three times the root width of the plants. Amend that soil taken from the hole. The only time the soil needs to be dug deeper than the container is when the soil is very bad at draining water. If a planting hole is filled with water and it drains this water overnight, then the drainage is good enough; three times the width of the roots/container is enough soil preparation.

Younger trees are planted in wet, amended soil, covered in woodchips and staked to prevent them from blowing over in strong winds.

            If the water does not drain from the hole overnight, you should plant on top of an embankment or a small hill. If you are planting a medium sized shrub (6 to 10 feet tall) in this spot, then the soil in the amended mound or hill should be 12 inches tall and about three or four feet wide. If the tree or shrub is 20 feet tall then the soil mound should be 18 inches high. Cover this soil with a mulch of some sort, either woodchips or rock depending on the type of plant.