What Happens on Installation Day

Most people ordering an advanced tree for the first time have no idea what is about to arrive in their driveway, and that uncertainty is the main reason they hesitate. A 200L tree is close to 300kg. A 400L is often over half a tonne. It does not come in a box, it does not fit through a standard gate on a trolley, and it cannot sit on the nature strip for a week while you find a landscaper. This is exactly why we supply, deliver and plant as one job. Here is precisely what happens, from the day you order to the day you are on your own with a hose.

Before the day: the site check

After your order we contact you to confirm the site. This is a short conversation but it decides the whole install, so it is worth having properly. We want to know four things: where the plants are going, how we get to that spot, what is under the ground, and whether anyone needs to be home.

• Access. The narrowest point on the route, in millimetres. Gate width, side path width, steps, slopes, low eaves and overhead wires.
• Parking. Where a truck can legally stop and how far that is from the planting position.
• Services. Sewer, stormwater, water main, gas, irrigation lines, pool plumbing and any electrical conduit run for a shed or a pool pump.
• Surface. Whether the crew is planting into lawn, a prepared bed, builder's fill, or a spot that still has a slab or stump in it.

If you are not sure about services, we lodge a Before You Dig enquiry and work from the plans. We also hand dig any hole within reach of a known service rather than machine it. Marking irrigation lines with a few tent pegs before we arrive takes you ten minutes and saves an awkward repair.

What we need from you on the day

Very little, which is the point. Clear vehicle access, a working outside tap, gates unlocked, dogs secured, and cars off the driveway. If pets or children will be around, we will ask you to keep them inside while machinery is moving, because a telehandler carrying a half tonne root ball has no useful visibility at ground level.

You do not need to be home for most installs, provided we already have the planting positions agreed and access does not require someone to open a gate. For a single feature tree we would rather you were there for five minutes at the start, because standing where you will actually look at the tree from and pointing is worth more than any measurement.

The delivery itself

Stock is loaded upright and restrained, and larger specimens are tied or netted so the canopy does not shred at highway speed. On arrival the crew unloads to a staging point rather than dragging plants across your lawn, then moves each one into position with the right gear for the site: a trolley for 45L and 100L, a bobcat or telehandler for 200L and up, a crane over the roof or fence for the largest specimens or where there is no side access at all.

Root balls are never lifted by the trunk. Anything above 100L is handled by the ball, in a sling or a lifting bag, because lifting a tree by the trunk tears the fine roots away from the stem and the tree will decline months later for no visible reason.

The same rule holds at any scale. Ornatec International's field record of lifting and root balling a mature tree shows how the export trade sizes, wraps and slings a ball on trees far larger than anything that fits on our truck.

How we actually plant

This is the part that determines whether your tree is still thriving in five years. The method is not complicated but it is done properly every time.

• The hole is dug two to three times the width of the root ball and no deeper. Width helps roots move outwards into loosened soil. Depth does not, and a hole dug too deep will settle and bury the root collar, which is the single most common cause of slow death in advanced trees.
• The sides are broken up, not smeared. In clay, a machine bucket glazes the wall of the hole into a smooth barrier. We rough the sides and base so roots can cross the interface.
• The tree sits with the root collar level with, or 20 to 30mm above, the surrounding soil. On heavy clay we plant slightly proud and mound to it, because drainage matters more than tidiness.
• Backfill is mostly your own site soil. A rich imported mix in the hole creates a bathtub: roots circle in the good stuff and never enter the native soil. We amend lightly and improve the wider bed instead.
• No fertiliser goes in the hole. Nothing burns new roots faster. Slow release goes on the surface under the mulch.
• Water goes in as we backfill, in stages, to collapse air pockets. Then a soil berm or saucer is formed at the edge of the root ball so future watering goes down rather than sideways.
• Mulch at 75 to 100mm, pulled 100mm clear of the trunk. Mulch touching bark holds moisture against the collar and invites rot.

The full reasoning behind each step is in our guide to how to plant a tree properly, and if you want to prepare the bed yourself before we arrive, preparing a site before your trees arrive tells you what genuinely helps.

Staking, and why we do not always do it

A tree that is rigidly staked never develops trunk taper, because the stem only thickens in response to movement. We stake when the site is exposed, when the root ball is small relative to the canopy, or when a palm needs bracing while it re-roots. When we do, ties are flexible and placed low, at roughly a third of the trunk height, so the top can still flex.

Stakes are a temporary support, not a permanent fixture. Most trees should have them removed within twelve to eighteen months, and a tie left on a growing trunk will girdle it. Our staking guide covers when to remove them and what a correctly staked tree looks like.

Clean up and what we leave behind

Spoil is either spread on site if you want it or taken away. Pots, ties, netting and packaging leave with the truck. Paths are swept, machine tracks on lawn are raked out, and the crew walks the job with you or sends photographs if you are not home.

You are left with each plant watered in, saucered, mulched, staked where required, and a short verbal or written handover on watering. Delivery anywhere in Australia and the professional planting are both included in the one price you paid for the plant, which is set out on our supplied and installed page. There is no separate freight charge and no separate labour charge to be surprised by.

Weather, timing and the things that move a booking

We plant year round. We service South East Queensland and the east coast corridor south to Sydney, with delivery and installation Australia wide. Autumn and early spring are ideal because the soil is warm and the plant is not fighting extreme heat while it re-roots. Summer planting works perfectly well provided watering is committed to from day one.

Three things move a booking. Heavy rain, because running a machine over saturated soil compacts it badly and undoes half the benefit of the install. Extreme heat days, where planting into 40C simply increases transplant shock. And access surprises, usually a gate 750mm wide when the tree needs 900mm. The first two we reschedule, the third we can usually solve on the day with different gear if you have told us in advance.

Your first fortnight

Once we leave, the job is yours, and it is genuinely simple. Water deeply and infrequently rather than lightly and often. For an advanced tree that usually means a slow soak directly over the root ball two or three times a week through the first summer, then tapering over the following year as roots move outwards. The root ball dries out faster than the surrounding soil for the first few months, so aim the water at the ball, not the bed.

• Check soil moisture with your finger under the mulch before watering. Overwatering kills as many new trees as drought.
• Expect some leaf drop or bronzing in the first fortnight. That is transplant adjustment, not failure.
• Do not fertilise for the first six weeks, and do not prune anything other than damaged wood in the first season.
• Keep mowers and whipper snippers away from the trunk. Bark damage at the base is a common and avoidable killer.

Our guide to watering a newly planted advanced tree gives volumes and a schedule you can follow through the first two summers.

If you are still choosing what to plant, browse the full tree range or the feature trees if you want one specimen to carry a front garden, then send us photographs of the access route and the planting position when you order. That one email is the difference between a smooth install and a rescheduled one, and it lets us bring the right machine the first time. You order. We supply, deliver and install. One price, whole job done.