ALL plants, whether they’re vegetables, trees, shrubs or cottage garden perennials, are potentially vulnerable when young or immature, writes TOM ATTWOOD. It is also the time when they are deemed at the tastiest, most palatable stage by the marauding mouths of mice, rabbits, deer, squirrels and the slugs and snails of this world. I’m confident that many of you reading this will have encountered the experience first-hand at some point. This week I’m looking at the protecting of young trees and how simple measures and techniques can help safeguard them from damage during their early years of being planted.

With young trees there are two main areas you want to focus on, the growing point of the tree, this is the main central shoot or ‘leader’ and wants to be looked after. A well-developed tree in the future needs to retain this from the start as without it, in some instances, the result can be an unbalanced canopy with a poorly structured framework. Damaging the growing point of the tree is often by physical damage where it’s been broken or snapped. Handle the tree carefully when planting and afterwards if it would be beneficial in the early days to give it some support from bouncing footballs or the curious hands of young children then a bamboo cane tied in to the main stem can help acting as a kind of temporary splint.

The other important area that needs looking after is the bark around the base of the tree. This is the ‘skin’ of the plant and directly beneath it is the living wood or green wood that if exposed to the open air by damage can become an entry point for disease. If you’re in the unfortunate position of having rabbits or grey squirrels in the vicinity then I’d recommend creating a physical guard around the tree. You can buy plastic ‘spiral guards’ that wrap around the trunk or solid plastic tubes, these offer a degree of protection but often it’s worth creating a low (approximately two to three feet across) round, chicken-wire/mesh guard that acts as an additional layer of protection encircling the base of the tree.

Next week: the best winter berries