I have 40 acres of mostly unused land with pretty much dead dirt. Our house came with an established tree line/wind break that has Caragana bushes as the first planting. These bushes are thriving and sending out constant new shoots. These bushes also fix nitrogen. So I decided to dig up some shoots and see if I could plant them in a far corner of the property. I dug up 11 saplings and marched over to a dead corner of our land. There I dug holes as deep as the shovel head, about 1′. Then I planted the saplings in the bottom and filled the hole entirely with mulch. I forgot about them for awhile and when I finally remembered to go check they were looking a little wilted. So I took some wine bottles (I save all my wine bottles) and filled them with water. The wine bottles work just like those aqua globes you see advertised on TV. I only filled the bottles once. Otherwise the bushes were on their own. I’d say 80% survived my neglect. I would probably have some amazing bushes this spring, except the rabbits got to them. I’m not sure if any will recover from that.
Caragana parent bush in established tree line.
Sapling as seen in hole without mulch. This was taken the day we watered them.
Son helping me insert watering wine bottles into plant holes.
Plant covered in mulch and growing well.
Pictures of the bushes now. Showing some green but chewed up by rabbits.
If you want to get some nitrogen fixing Caragana seeds
and give them a try I find them prolific and a joy to have around. The bees love them as well.
On another plus side, I now have well fertilized holes on my property thanks to this experiment and rabbits.
