With the summer monsoon tree planting in the offing, here is a quick guide on how to plant a tree giving it the best possible start in life.

1.) Having selected the planting site according to tree species and immediate surroundings, the first thing is to prepare a planting hole. This should be, on average, at least 3ft across and 2-3ft deep. Remove any large stones and weed roots from the excavated soil and mix the cleaned soil with a generous helping of old, well-rotted, preferably organic, animal manure (not poultry manure) or organic compost. A mix of 75 percent soil to 25 percent manure/compost is ideal.

If planting fruit/nut trees, place a totally clean (boiled to remove all traces of fat etc.) handful of cow/sheep bones, along with a piece or two of old iron (not aluminum) in the base of the hole and cover this over with some of the soil mix. The bone slowly releases calcium to feed the tree over many years to come and the iron adds, well, iron, which is beneficial for fruit tree growth. Planting holes and soil mix should be prepared at least 4-6 weeks in advance so that these have time to meld and settle.

2.) If the sapling is in a pot, carefully extract it and gauge the size of its roots to the depth of the hole. It is essential to plant the sapling no deeper than where the base of its trunk met soil level when it was in its pot. Even if the sapling has just been dug out of the ground and is being sold bare-rooted (without a pot), it should still be planted as aforementioned.

Getting your new tree off to a healthy start will help the tree mature to its full size and be beneficial throughout its lifetime

Look at the trunk of the sapling carefully and you will clearly see where its trunk previously met the soil surface and you need to replicate this. You may have to fill in the planting hole a little before planting the sapling to achieve the desired level. Do not plant the sapling deeper in the soil than it was planted before, as this inhibits it and can result in the trunk becoming infected and rotting away. If the sapling roots are very tangled, carefully spread them out before planting.

3.) Hold the sapling firmly in place and carefully infill around it with the soil mix. When the planting hole is half full, water well to settle the soil before filling up with soil and watering again.

4.) Water heavily twice a week for the first month and then once a week for the following six months to one year and until the tree is well established when, depending on species, watering can be reduced.

5.) Keep the area around the base of the sapling weed-free at all times and mulch — which should be kept at least six inches away from the tree trunk base — during periods of hot, dry weather.

6.) Ornamental trees can be fed once a year, fruit trees at least twice a year depending on species.

This month’s seed sowing suggestions

The flower garden: French and African marigolds and tagetes can all be sown now and will give the garden a blaze of bright colour through late summer and well into autumn. Cosmos, rudbeckia, gaillardia, tithonia, gomphrena, gerbera, coleus, balsam, matricaria and kochia can also be sown now. It may be a little early (next month being more traditional) but you may like to take a chance and sow some dahlia, antirrhinum and hollyhock seeds if you have a partially shaded location to keep the seed-trays/pots of seedlings, and one which can easily be protected from monsoon rains. Another sowing of sunflowers in the south of the country, along with easy- and fast-to-grow candytuft, matthiola and sweet alyssum wouldn’t go amiss either.

The vegetable garden: Summer and autumn varieties of cabbage and cauliflower in partial shade along with lettuce, Swiss chard/leaf beet and spinach. A final batch of chillies, capsicums, pimentos, aubergines and cucumbers. Green onions, okra, radish/mooli and tomatoes, especially cherry tomatoes as these tend to be more blight- and pest-resistant than varieties such as the huge beefsteak ones. You may like to chance a few more members of the gourd family too.

The herb garden: Nasturtiums, chives, garlic chives, calendulas, coriander, basil, lemon grass, aniseed, dill, borage and plecanthrus.

The fruit front: Watermelons, sweet melons and Chinese gooseberries from seed, plus plant some more pineapple tops for homegrown treats over the years to come.

Trees and shrubs: A huge variety of indigenous trees can be started off from seed now, as can many fruit trees and shrubs. Seed for all of the aforementioned can be harvested from the wild, from roadside trees, garden shrubs, and out of many of the fruits you eat, with the exception of a few species, such as cheeku and avocado which, to produce quality fruits, should be grown from grafted stock. As this seed is free, there is no excuse not to plant lots of it and then to share around the resultant saplings. Trees and shrubs generally take longer to grow than flowering plants and vegetables, so be patient.

Fruit tree of the month: Sapota/ sapodilla/ cheeku/ Mud apple. Native to Mexico, the delicious cheeku is a fruit tree well worth having. Some people seem to think that it is a small to medium-sized shrub but, given the space and care it deserves, cheeku eventually grows into a huge tree with a very dense and wide canopy. The recommended planting distance between cheeku trees is 30-40ft as, although very slow growing, it has the potential to be a massive tree. The most beautiful cheeku trees are in Islamabad. One of the few fruit trees that will not bear fruit if grown from seed, cheeku trees are usually grafted on to kirni rootstock and a grafted sapling should begin fruiting from the age of 3-4 years and will fruit twice a year from then on. This highly-recommended tree species prefers a sandy loam soil, a position in full sun and is reasonably tolerant of saline soil conditions.

Please continue sending your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Remember to include your location. The writer does not respond directly by email. Emails with attachments will not be opened

Published in Dawn, EOS, June 5th, 2022