How to Plant a Tree the White Method
While we were in Australia, we adopted the … plan …of digging deep trenches and filling them in with dressing that would create good soil. This we did in the cultivation of tomatoes, oranges, lemons, peaches, and grapes. {4 Biography 223.2}
The man of whom we purchased our peach trees told me that he would be pleased to have me observe the way they were planted. I then asked him to let me show him how it had been represented in the night season that they should be planted. {4BIO 223.3}
I ordered my hired man to dig a deep cavity in the ground, then put in rich dirt, then stones, then rich dirt. After this he put in layers of earth and dressing until the hole was filled….He [the nurseryman] said to me, “You need no lesson from me to teach you how to plant the trees.”—Letter 350, 1907. {4BIO 223.4}
I remembered something about spreading the roots of trees over a big rock, but I don’t think that would be limestone rock. A granite boulder would be ideal because of the minerals it contains. H C White also suggests adding hundreds of earthworms. So it sounds as though adding extra earthworms to the garden would be a good idea as well. I’m not so sure about the tin can, though. It had better be big so as not to constrict tree growth! But maybe by that time it will have broken down. ..
Also see Sun Country Gardens front page
