A NATURE-LOVING influencer shared a smart and easy way to give new trees a head start when you plant them.
The secret to the gardening hack is to create a 'dirt donut' around the base of the tree, allowing water to fully penetrate the roots.
Cottonwood Urban Farm (@cufarm) demonstrated how helpful the technique is when you're planting new or young trees.
In the TikTok video, he started with the tree already planted in the ground and began to build up a ring of raised dirt in a wide circle around the trunk of the tree.
He said that this planting method was "one of the funnest ones, especially if you're a little person under the age of five."
After planting the tree in the ground, he said: "You're going to make a ring of raised soil above the well that you just dug."
Demonstrating with his hands, the influencer showed the camera that once the dirt donut is complete, you can fill the ring with water which will slowly drain down to the tree roots.
He said: "What this allows for is deep watering. We can fill the water up to the lip of this and let it percolate back down.
"Deep watering is the key for this tree's success. We want to create a resilient, deep root system."
This planting technique can also be called a "berm," he added.
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The California-based TikToker explained: "Tree wells like this, deep dirt berms, are very helpful. As the tree gets larger, the canopy expands, the berm goes wider and wider."
Gardeners should then add mulch around the outside of the ring to help insulate the tree, which the influencer says is the "frosting and sprinkles" of the donut.
He said: "Put mulch everywhere around your new berm, right up to the edge of it.
"It's going to keep that nice moisture in as these feeder roots expand out. So push that mulch up against the edge of the dirt ring around the tree."
The video concluded after mulch was spread evenly around the outside edge of the ring of dirt, leaving the tree ready to be watered.
In the video's caption, the TikToker wrote that this planting method "protects the earth around the berm, locks in moisture, and is a slow-moving compost".
The influencer uploads other gardening hacks and tricks to his page, including other ways to plant trees and plant care tips.
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