Lyn - Have you thought about getting a Gator for your trees?
http://www.treegator.com/ or
http://www.homegardeningproduc... This is what I use on some of my new trees. Trees really don't need that much water. It's the WAY you water them that helps them survive or not. Trust me, I've killed LOTS of trees and TreeGators are great for preventing that. I was doing the 5gal bucket & small holes, but found they drain too fast. Tree gators take like 10-12 hours to drain completely, which soaks straight down rather than run off. I buy them off of eBay when I need to get new ones (one will last me about 4-5 years with my sun here before the plastic starts to fall apart). I also like the donut shaped ones too.
