How to plant apple trees

Here are our new apple trees. They arrived a couple of days ago, which was very exciting. They are only one-year-old saplings, so are still very small, and are grafted onto dwarfing rootstock, so won't grow very big even when they are mature.

The Crispin will be 10-13ft and will be at bearing age in another 2-3 years, and the Redsleeves and Saturn will grow to 8-10 ft and be at bearing age in 1-2 years.

They arrived wrapped in straw, and then plastic, with their bare roots wrapped in a black plastic bag to keep them from drying out. I couldn't plant them the day they arrived, so they have been living in the garage for the past two days, which was what we were told would be the right thing to do with them. Frost free, but cool.

I went out and bought stakes, ties and bonemeal (to help their roots grow) and this morning as I was child-free I bit the bullet, donned my wellies and went out there to dig some holes.

I first measured (roughly) a circle about 2-3 feet diameter around the planting site, and dug the turf from it. Then I dug a hole in the middle of the bare patch. First I put the stake in and shoved it in good and hard, burying it a bit.

After this I sprinkled roughly a handful (but not a technical handful because you don't want to touch this stuff) of bonemeal into the hole.

Then I used the handy cane that they arrived with laid across my hole to see the ground level and then put the little tree in the hole trying to put it in at the same depth that it had come out of the ground.

Next I filled up the hole, and used one of the ties I had bought to attach the treelet to the stake.

Repeat three times!

In other news, I replanted the rhubarb a couple of weeks ago. It was in the wrong place entirely. Too far from the path but not far enough that I could use the space it left. So I have moved it to where the pea teepee was last year. But let me tell you, moving a rhubarb is a big job! I knew I had a big rhubarb plant. It is (at the right time of year) big and lush and produces lots of lovely glossy leaves and delicious stems. And even in dormant state it is big. But dormant is (obviously) the right time to move it, so it was now or never. So one day when the weather was nice and I was having a 'get things done' sort of day (like today) I got to it.

It took me a full two hours, and I was working in the darkness at the end. It was a B-I-G plant. I kept digging a deeper and deeper trench around it and still not getting anywhere near being able to lift it. So as darkness fell and my desperation increased I made a decision. I split it. It was solid rootmass. Not dense, and easy to cut with my spade, but like (I imagine) a huge, slightly woody, truffle. Even half of it was too big for me to lift, so it had to go into quarters.

(Here it is in the summer, on the left)

I have been left with a crater with roots still sticking out of it. I hope the transplant works, but I'll only know when spring arrives and it starts to sprout - hopefully!
In the mean time, once my toes defrost from the tree project this morning, the next stage of the veg plot transformation is to dig over the ex-rhubarb area and get it ready for potatoes. I am thinking Charlottes (like last year) and perhaps Red Duke of York or maybe Pink Fir Apples.

The days are getting longer, the kids are back at school and we are all (relatively) healthy!