How to Move a Mature Juniper

Junipers can have white, light violet or dark reddish brown berries.

If you've ever tasted gin you've had about .01 percent juniper extract and .006 percent juniper oil, according to Planet Botanic Canada. In the 1800s, the British believed oil and berries from the juniper, an evergreen used for medicine by natives of the Americas, Africa and the Middle East, made into a liquor could strengthen the body and ward off malaria. This shrub can grow long creeping branches which may look untamed in your yard, causing you to move it to a larger or more suitable area.

Things You'll Need

• Large shovel
• Tree spade (optional)
• Tarp
• Bucket of water
• Native dirt or acid or alkaline soil
• Peat moss or compost

Instructions

1. Find the main roots of the juniper by pressing a shovel blade into the ground and feeling for root resistance. The larger the bush, the more widespread the roots will be.

2. Search with your shovel for a circumference around the juniper where the roots begin to thin out. This is usually about one foot outward from a small juniper and three to four feet outward from a large juniper. Keeping as many roots as possible gives the bush a higher survival rate.

3. Dig downwards around the juniper. As you dig down, press the shovel into the dirt underneath the bush to check for the main root system. You want to dig down far enough to preserve most of the main root system.

4. Use the shovel to cut the roots underneath the juniper so you can pull it out of the ground. Remember that if you don't dig deep enough, you will be compromising a large amount of the main root system, which could kill the plant.

5. Carefully but firmly pull the juniper out of the ground and onto a tarp. If the bush shows resistance, you may need to cut more roots with your shovel.

6. Pull the tarp with the juniper on it to its new location. You can either drag the tarp or wrap the bush up with it and carry it. Dig a hole in the ground as deep as the hole you dug to pull the bush out.

7. Mix some peat moss or compost into soil you are using for transplanting to give the juniper better water retention.

8. Pour water into the new hole to loosen the soil. Place the bush into the hole and pour your soil mixture into the hole around the roots of the juniper so that it's firmly in the ground. Water the new soil.

9. Water the newly planted juniper occasionally for the first and possibly second year of its transplant. Junipers don't need a lot of water, but when transplanted, the roots can more easily grow and spread through dampened soil.

Tips & Warnings

• Some juniper trees can grow as large as 40 feet tall. If you are trying to move a large tree, hiring a service with a tree spade may be the most viable option. If you still want to move the large tree yourself, you can rent a tree spade from a construction equipment company, landscaping company or possibly a plant nursery.

• Don't cut back the juniper's foliage when moving it. While this may make it easier to handle the bush, because it's an evergreen the foliage will most likely not grow back once removed.

References

• North Dakota State University Extension Service: Questions on: Juniper
• Utah State University: Utah Juniper
• University of Florida IFAS Extension: Juniperus ashei
• Juniper Trees: How to Grow Junipers
• Juniper and Sage: Chapter Seven - Go Native
• University of Rhode Island Landscape Horticulture Program: Juniper Tip Blights
• Planet Botanic Canada: Juniper Facts

Resources

• University of Minnesota: Moving and Transplanting Trees with a Tree Spade
• Rental HQ: Tackle Tree Work With Efficiency