Dame Judi Dench has won an Oscar, seven BAFTAs and the hearts of roughly everyone. Ask her about her life now and she will tell you it is, and we quote, 'trees and champagne'. The woman is one of us.
At the bottom of her six-acre garden in Surrey there is a private wood, and in it she plants a tree for every friend and family member she has lost. Not a plaque, not a bench. A living thing that keeps growing long after the grief has softened. It is the most quietly moving idea in gardening, and it happens to land at exactly the right time of year for us down here.
The most optimistic thing you can do
Planting a tree is a bet on a future you might not be around to see. You dig the hole, you firm the soil, and someone decades from now gets the shade, the blossom, the birdsong. Winter in New Zealand is when that bet gets placed. Deciduous trees are dormant, bare-root stock is cheap and available, and the ground is soft and damp. This is the window.
Plant it properly
The single most common mistake is a hole that is deep and narrow. Roots spread sideways, not down, so dig a hole two to three times as wide as the root ball and no deeper than the roots themselves. Tease the roots out so they are not circling. Keep the graft or the trunk flare sitting proud of the soil, never buried. Backfill with the soil you dug out, firm it with your heel to knock out the air pockets, and water it in slowly and deeply. If it is exposed, stake low and loose so the trunk can still flex, because a trunk that moves is a trunk that grows strong. Take the stake off after a year.
The first two summers decide everything
A newly planted tree has no reach yet, so it cannot fend for itself. Water deeply and less often, a proper soak that reaches the roots rather than a daily splash that stays on top. Mulch a generous circle around it to hold moisture and keep the grass off, but keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Resist the urge to prune hard in the first couple of years. Let it find its feet.
The tools you'll actually reach for
A sharp spade is the whole job. A clean cutting edge slices roots and turf instead of tearing them, and a decent one will outlast the tree's first decade with ease. Browse the range in Spades & Forks and the cold-weather kit in Winter Sorted. Not sure what to plant? Start with Evergreen or deciduous.
The long game
Judi Dench is in her nineties and still planting. That is the whole spirit of it. You buy the good spade once, you plant the tree once, and both outlast you. Buy once, buy well, and put something in the ground this winter that somebody will thank you for long after you have stopped gardening.
