Why Sheryn used a digger to plant her trees

How much you need to modify the soil in the planting hole depends on how bad your existing soil is. I planted my orchard into a clay bank that had previously been cropped for maize and grazed by dairy cattle, so I had to add a lot of nutrients.

Holes were dug using a digger, then backfilled with compost. Trees I planted in later years (small, handdug holes, backfilled with bucketfuls of compost), had about a third of the vigour of the originals which were planted with lots of love, food, and machinery.

Diggers are my favourite treeplanting tool, but even a post-hole borer is a good option IF you know the right technique. It's crucial to ensure the sides of the hole aren't smooth or round when you plant a tree, especially in clay soil. Roots can't penetrate the smooth glazed curved walls created by the blades of a borer. It's important to roughen smooth sides with a spade to create a porous surface.

If you have clay, use a digger (or rotary hoe or willing teenager) to mix in sand (or sandy soil) to the clay that you backfill around the roots. Alternatively, if your soil is very sandy, you can mix in compost and/ or clay. Get more tips on page 45.