🌿 Dreikha Little Garden

Generated from Plant-care-guide.md · Soil-mix guide

Quick glossary

🌳 Planting a tree or shrub

For the bigger woody plants (guava, firebush, blueberry, simpson's stopper…). The little annuals and groundcovers just need a hole the size of their pot and regular water until they take.

Dig wide, not deep. Make the hole about 1½× as wide as the root ball but only as deep — the top of the root ball should sit a touch above ground level so it won't sink. Keep the trunk flare (where trunk widens into roots) showing.
Backfill with your own native soil. No need to amend it — the roots must learn to live in the real ground. Tamp gently; don't bury the trunk.
Build a little berm of leftover soil in a ring around the plant to catch water over the roots, then mulch 2–3″ thick — kept off the trunk.
Staking is usually unnecessary if the root ball is heavy. Stake only a top-heavy or wind-exposed plant.
If you feed at all, wait ≥1 month after planting, use a slow-release organic feed (our garden rule: organic only).

💧 Watering to establish

Rule of thumb: about 3 months of attentive watering per inch of trunk thickness. Give 2–3 gallons per inch of trunk each watering (≈4–6 gal for a 2″ tree). Skip a day if the root ball is already soaked.

Trunk thickness	Full-vigor schedule	Survival schedule
Under 2″	Daily 2 wks → every other day 2 mo → weekly until established	Twice weekly 2–3 mo
2–4″	Daily 1 mo → every other day 3 mo → weekly until established	Twice weekly 3–4 mo
Over 4″	Daily 6 wks → every other day 5 mo → weekly until established	Twice weekly 4–5 mo

Source: Sweet Bay Nursery (Parrish, FL) planting handout, aligned with UF/IFAS practice. Use the “survival” column if you can’t keep up with the fuller schedule.