Question
My in-laws gave my husband and I a 4ft Colorado Blue Spruce for our 5 year anniversary at the end of October.  We live in northern Illinois.  We have not been able to plant it yet.  Should we wait until Spring?  It is in cardboard pot and is currently sitting on the driveway next to the garage.  I watered it regularly when it was warmer out.  Should I keep it outside and should I continue to water it regularly?  It still looks as green and healthy as when we got it.  
Also, when we do plan it we're concerned about the depth of the dirt in our yard.  Our builders didn't put much black-dirt on top of the clay-dirt that was there.  Our neighbor suggested not planting it all the way but instead only half-way and piling dirt around the rest.  What is your suggestion?  And should we remove the cardboard pot before planting?
Thank you very much for your help.

Answer
When you plant the tree will depend on if the ground is frozen. The best time is the spring after the soil thaws. The fall would have been good also. IF the ground is not frozen yet I would tend to plant it now instead of trying to keep it until spring. The tree will not do good inside a heated place but in a cool garage you could keep it until spring. You will have to water it if the soil in the pot starts to dry (do not want the soil to be wet but just damp).
In either case (planting now or waiting until spring) the hole for the tree should be twice the diameter of the pot it is in and as deep. Place the tree so that the top of the rootball is even with the ground surface. Make sure you remove the pot and genitally spread out any roots that a circling the pot. Fill the hole with good potting soil and mulch around the tree with not more than 3 inches of mulch and water. The roots will penetrate the clay soil but if you want to you can dig the hole deeper and fill the bottom with potting soil making sure the top of the root ball is level with the ground.
I would not use the berm to plant in since it will be above the natural ground surface and will freeze sooner than the ground and it also will dry out sooner.

If you have a place to keep the tree from freezing this winter out of a heated area you can wait until spring otherwise go ahead and plant it now if the ground is not frozen.