How to plant outdoors

You Will Need

• A large pot-grown plant
• Garden compost or well-rotted farmyard manure
• Bonemeal fertiliser
• Garden spade
• Watering can or hose

Total time: 20 minutes

Step 1

Choose a suitable place for the plant in your garden. Using a spade, dig a hole that's slightly bigger than the size of the pot that it's growing in. Pile the excavated soil to one side.

Step 2

Use a garden fork to loosen the base of the hole, mixing in a couple of handfuls of compost, together with a little bonemeal. Add some more compost to the excavated soil.

Step 3

Soak the roots of the plant in a bucket of water before planting. Invert the pot, holding the plant in one hand and the base of the pot in the other to knock it out.

Step 4

Place the plant in the hole, making sure that the top of the compost is at the same level as the surrounding soil. Use a cane placed across the top of the hole to check this level.

Step 5

Fill around the rootball of the plant using the excavated soil and compost mix. Firm it in layers as you fill the hole so that there are no air pockets left in the soil.

Step 6

Water the plant with at least one watering can full of water. And continue to water in this way at least once a week during dry weather for the whole of the first year after planting.

Use your fingers to break up any lumps of soil that you use to fill in around the roots of the plant. This will help prevent large air spaces forming.