Tree Planting and Replacement Trees in Greater Burlington

The best choice depends on the specific soil, moisture, exposure, available space and purpose. We narrow the list for the site instead of recommending one species everywhere.

Spacing depends on the tree's mature canopy and roots, the building, drainage and utilities. The mature size—not the nursery size—guides placement.

Initial watering and the ongoing customer or service responsibility are stated in the estimate, along with any warranty conditions.

A smaller, healthy tree that is properly handled and matched to the site may establish better than an oversized specimen. Species, root quality, access and watering capacity matter.

Plan from the species’ mature crown and root space, not its nursery size. Buildings, overhead lines, buried utilities, roads and sightlines all affect placement.

Initial watering may be included, but ongoing establishment care usually belongs to the owner unless a maintenance plan says otherwise. Frequency should respond to soil moisture and weather.

Match the tree to the site first and the wish list second. Assess how much root space there actually is, whether the spot is wet or drains fast, sun exposure, salt from a road or walkway in winter, and the height and spread available with overhead lines in mind. Then choose from species suited to the region — and choose something different from what your neighbours already have. The single most valuable rule after the ash outbreak is diversity: do not plant a street or a yard with one species.

Spring after the ground thaws and autumn before it freezes are both good; the deciding factor is your ability to water. Autumn planting gives roots a season to establish before the first summer's heat, which is a real advantage, but a tree planted late in autumn on an exposed site can suffer over winter. Mid-summer planting is possible but commits you to serious, sustained watering.

With the root flare — the point where the trunk widens into the roots — visible at or slightly above the finished grade. Planting too deep is the most common and most consequential planting error, and it kills trees slowly enough that nobody links the death to the planting a decade earlier. Nursery stock is very often already too deep in its own container or ball, so the flare has to be found by excavating the top of the root mass before deciding the hole depth.

Usually not, and staking by default does harm. A tree that moves in the wind develops a stronger, more tapered trunk and better anchorage; one held rigid does not. Stake only if the site is genuinely too exposed or the root ball is too small to hold the tree upright, use a low, loose tie that still allows movement, and remove it after one growing season. Ties left on until they girdle the trunk are a common and avoidable loss.

Regularly and generously for the first two to three growing seasons, because a transplanted tree has lost most of its original root system and has to rebuild it. A slow, deep soak of the root ball and the ground immediately around it, roughly weekly through the growing season and more often in a hot dry spell, is the standard. Continue into autumn until the ground freezes; a dry autumn followed by a hard winter is a common cause of first-year loss.

Far enough that its mature crown and root system fit, which means looking up the species' mature spread rather than judging by the sapling. As a working approach, plan for at least half the mature crown spread from the wall, more for a large species, and keep large trees clear of the septic field, the leach lines and any shallow foundation. Check overhead conductors before choosing a spot, because a tall species under a line becomes a permanent pruning obligation.

Generally no, and the reason is counter-intuitive. A hole of rich amended soil in surrounding native soil behaves like a container: roots circle inside the pleasant pocket rather than growing out into the ground, and water moves oddly across the boundary. Dig the hole wide and shallow, backfill with the soil that came out of it, and put the improvement effort into mulch on the surface instead.

Smaller than instinct suggests. A smaller-calibre tree loses proportionally less of its root system, establishes faster, needs less watering support and very often overtakes a larger transplant within a few years. Paying for an instant effect usually buys a longer, riskier establishment period. If there is a reason for immediate size — screening, a memorial — that is a legitimate trade, made knowingly.

Yes. Vermont's Dig Safe notification requirement applies to digging, and a planting hole is digging. That covers the public utilities at no cost to you. It does not cover private lines you or a previous owner installed — irrigation, invisible fence, lighting, a feed to a shed or a well — so mark those yourself. A tree hole is shallow, but the machine used to auger one is not always.