Moving a tree

marshmellowskiesW41bAiuI

Hello everyone,

I am new to gardening and this forum and am hoping someone could give me some advice.

We have just moved into a house with a young prunus royal burgundy tree in the garden. It is planted close to the fence and we are worried it will cause problems later. Do you think it would be ok to move it now? 

We have a NE facing garden that gets sun over most of the lawn. We are also wanting to get another tree to attract little garden birds and wondered if anyone could recommend one? We used to live in a rental with a beautiful birch but perhaps those are too large for this size garden?

many thanks in advance for any advice.


lizzie 

Ceres

Hello and welcome.

Now is the time to move the tree. This advice is for more mature specimens but follow the rules and your tree will have a better chance of establishing quickly in it's new position. https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=293

Crab apples are good at attracting birds, at least the one I have gets stripped of fruits by winter's end.

marshmellowskiesW41bAiuI

Thank you Ceres! I will check out the crab apple tree. And thank you for the advice regarding moving the tree. 

Cambridgerose12

You can also move your tree in autumn if you need to, as it is likely to need less watering in afterwards. But in fact, I can't see how it would be likely to damage the fence where it is. If there are low branches actually touching the fence, you can prune those out quite easily.

I'd hesitate over a birch unless you are sure there is nothing its roots could get into such as water mains, sewers, foundations. They are a bit notorious for that. There are lots of small trees that will appeal to birds. Besides crabapples, there are also Amelanchier and Cotoneaster 'Cornubia', which have berries birds love. For nesting they will generally prefer it once the trees provide a bit more cover, but you can help by installing a few nest boxes. Something that often brings the birds in is a large evergreen shrub, so you might think about holly, for example.

marshmellowskiesW41bAiuI

Hello Cambridge rose,

Thanks so much for replying. That’s really helpful about the cherry tree as I would rather not move it if I don’t have to! I love your other tips too. Definitely going to fill the garden with lots of shrubs.

I’ve just been looking at the amelanchier tree actually and it’s lovely. And I’ve read good things about the cotoneaster especially as we live near a main road with lots of car pollution.

When you plant a tree, how do you decide on where to put it? I’ve tried to Google it but haven’t found much advice. Our garden is NE facing and not that big - but I was thinking of putting it somewhere in the middle third of the lawn to create a focal point. Would that be strange?!

Thanks again for your reply,
Lizzie 

KT53

It appears to be a very young, probably recently planted tree, so I would move it as soon as possible before the root systems spreads too much.  You may even find that soil from the original pot is still visible if you scrape away the top 2 or 3 inches of soil.  If so you can dig around that, lift and replant.

marshmellowskiesW41bAiuI

It was planted 3 years ago according to its little tag. If I don’t have to move it, I would rather not as I’ve never done something like that before... Many thanks for your reply!