Improving your drainage

Drainage is one of the most important factors to consider when planting fruit trees. If you have heavy clay based soil it is important to plant your fruit trees into a raised mound which improves the drainage and gets your trees off to a good start.
Dig the hole into the ground as normal and then create a mound, with compost and the top soil from the hole. In these pictures I am planting a coconut, as I have heavy soils and coconuts grow along our sandy coastline I added a wheelbarrow of sand to create my mound.



To reduce competition from weeds, I recycle my old newspapers 8 sheets thick, which keeps the weeds at bay - for a little while at least



and then I cover this with a healthy layer or organic mulch, lucerne hay is perfect to use as mulch as it is rich in notrogen and feeds the trees as it composts.