How Close to My House Can I Plant a Tree?

Allman, Molly. "How Close to My House Can I Plant a Tree?" Home Guides | SF Gate, http://homeguides.sfgate.com/close-house-can-plant-tree-96222.html. 14 December 2018.

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Foliage: What to be aware of when planting trees in the winter

Photo: SiteOne

Winter can be a slow time for business, especially if you don't offer snow removal or Christmas lighting services, but there are still ways to keep your employees busy.

While your sales and design teams can plan out the jobs for the upcoming new year, your installation crews may be looking for something to do.

Depending on the area you are located in, you can actually get a head start on next spring by planting trees as long as the ground is not frozen. George Wolf, SiteOne's senior director of category management, says any species can be planted in late winter as long as it is appropriate for the USDA zone you're working in.

He does warn that late winter planting isn't exactly the ideal time, but it is doable.

"I don't see a true cultural benefit to planting in late winter in terms of blooming, establishing roots or increased survivability," Wolf says. "Only real benefit I can see is that a landscaper could level out peak labor demands by planting trees prior to the spring season kicking in. There is no horticultural benefit that I am aware of to be gained from planting in late winter."

If client or labor needs cause you to need to start planting trees in late winter, here are some of the issues you need to be prepared for and may prevent you from starting at all.

1. Availability of stock

Wolf says that container stock or trees that have been harvested and burlapped during the fall digging season are ideal for late winter planting.

"Planting trees in the winter would be similar to being 'mulched in' at a nursery yard or grower for protection from the winter elements," he says.

Photo: SiteOne

The problem that might occur, depending on your location, is if the nursery has already winterized their operations. If the plants are already mulched in for the season, you might not be able to start installing in the winter, even if you wanted to.

Wolf also says you should determine if what you are planting is fresh or tired stock from the prior season.

"Not all product leafs out in spring, so what is your course of action if the tree does not leaf out?" Wolf says. "If you wait until spring, you can think about using trees of a greater caliper, such as SiteOne specimen trees, to give you a jump on the season."

2. Frozen soil

If the ground is frozen, digging will be nearly impossible and the tree will likely suffer from reduced root growth and eventual tree decline.

Wolf adds that frozen soil will prove challenging to get a good mixture of soil and soil amendments mixed in the planting hole between the native soil and the root ball.

3. Winter threats

Just like how summer has a number of stressors, winter comes with its own set of factors that can prove challenging for trees just getting settled in. These include late winter storms, the ground freezing again and bark splitting just to name a few.

Winter burn, or desiccation, can happen when evergreens lose considerable amounts of moisture through their leaves due to strong winds or sunlight while the roots are frozen, preventing the plant from replacing the lost water.

Sun scald tends to appear on the south or southwest side of a tree during the late winter and early spring. Direct sun can heat the bark enough that the tissue becomes active and breaks dormancy, but freezing temperatures at night kill the active tissue.

One of the most obvious causes of winter damage to plants is snow and ice. Heavy snow and ice can cause tree branches to bend and break.

Newly planted trees and shrubs can allow cold air to penetrate the root zone if cracks in the soil are not properly filled. Mulch and leaf litter tend to keep the soil insulated and prevent the temperature from fluctuating in the winter.

4. Irrigation

While you might not think of winter as a dry time, but it can be a challenge for trees to get the moisture that they need. Wolf says this is more of an issue when planting evergreens in late winter.

"Deciduous trees are dormant in the winter and require very little water," he says. "Evergreen trees keep their needles and leaves and as a result have a much greater need for moisture. If there is a late freeze or the ground is still partially frozen, it makes it much more difficult for an evergreen tree to get the moisture it needs to support the needles or leaves."

He also notes it's important to have irrigation in place for when the tree does break dormancy.

One thing to make clear to clients who may be wanting a tree planted early for spring blossoms is that many transplanted trees or containerized trees do not bloom heavily the first year of planting.

"This is primarily a result of the tree using its energy to establish roots to provide moisture and nutrients for the plant during the upcoming summer season, so in many cases rooting takes priority over blooms and flowers," Wolf says.

Fall is a good season to plant trees or shrubs in the landscape

Fall is here. The weather has been cooler and very wet. Gardeners will slowly be migrating back outdoors after the heat this summer. Now is a perfect time to plan the addition of a new tree or a grouping of shrubs to the landscape. Or perhaps you have an area in the landscape that needs remodeling or rejuvenating. The fall may be the best season to plant, surpassing even the spring.

Many people prefer January through March for planting, but the fall months of September through December have distinct advantages. Fall planting follows the heat of summer, before a cool winter season, and trees and shrubs planted in the fall use this to good advantage. Plant roots grow any time the soil temperature is 40 degrees or higher, which may occur all winter in Texas. During the winter months, the roots systems of the fall-planted specimens develop and become established. When spring arrives, this expanded root system can support and take advantage of the full surge of spring growth.

Fall is the optimum time to plant balled and burlapped trees and shrubs. Balled and burlapped plants have ample time to recover from transplanting and proliferate roots before spring growth begins. Remember, however, all bare-root plants, including roses and pecan and fruit trees, should be planted in late winter when they are completely dormant. When buying plants for your landscape, be sure to get healthy, well-grown plants. Always buy from a reputable dealer. Those in the plant-selling business year round depend on repeat customers, and can only assure their future business if they sell customers quality plants. Beware of plant bargains. They can easily turn out to be real headaches. A bargain is no good if it dies. The price tag, especially the cheapest one, is not the best guide to quality.

All plants have growing requirements. Think about the plant’s needs before you invest. Is it adapted to your area’s soil? Will it grow in sun or shade? Does it need a wet or dry location? Is it cold hardy? Some nurseries have this type of information on tags beside the plant. If not, ask a nursery professional or the county Extension agent.

"Plan before you plant" is always a good rule of thumb. Whether you are planting a single plant or an entire landscape, plan first, then plant. Good planning is a worthwhile investment of time that will pay off in greater enjoyment of attractive and useful home grounds, and in increasing the value of your home. It’s much easier to move plants on paper than to dig them after planting in the wrong place. A plan saves many planting mistakes.

Every plant in the landscape should serve a purpose. Ask yourself if you want a plant for screening, for privacy or for shade. How large will it be five years from now? Plants, like people, grow up. Remember, that a small 1-gallon size plant will look entirely different after a few years of growth in your landscape.

For more information, contact Clint Perkins with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension office in Smith County, 1517 W. Front St., Suite 116, Tyler, 75702; or call 903-590-2980

Planting trees isn’t simple: Behind The Carver Tree Project’s year-long journey

RICHMOND, Va.— Volunteers gathered on a chilly mid-November weekend in the Carver neighborhood's Smith-Peters Park to finally bring The Carver Tree Project to life. After over a year of planning, four shifts of volunteers helped plant 62 trees in a historic neighborhood with sparse greenery.

Wyatt Carpenter, VCU's sustainability projects and program coordinator, began planning the Carver Tree Project about a year ago with Catherine Viverette, assistant professor in VCU's Center for Environmental Studies. The pair secured a partnership grant from VCU's Division of Community Engagement, which allowed them to begin the groundwork for the project.

Carpenter recalled thinking the process would be simple, but as they dove into the work, it quickly became complicated.

"I think the challenging part was just figuring out what we didn't know," Carpenter said. "Every time we thought we had all the answers, that sort of opened a new door."

From auditing the existing trees for carbon sequestration to securing neighborhood buy in, the project took over a year to plant the first tree.

Preliminary Research (iTree — who knew?!)

With Viverette's help, a VCU class of environmental science students measured the carbon dioxide sequestration of the neighborhood's existing trees over the course of the 2017-18 academic year.

Carbon dioxide sequestration is the process by which trees capture and store carbon dioxide, one of the benefits trees provide to the environment. Viverette's students have been collecting the same measurements in her Panama study abroad class for the last eight years, but this was the first time they'd performed the tests in Richmond.

The research results were compiled into a comprehensive report that included both Carver and Richmond's tree coverage.

Viverette's students measured trunk size, tree height and canopy health, and plugged the data into iTree, a software that calculates the ecosystem service values of every tree. Carpenter defined ecosystem service values as the amount in dollars each tree's oxygen production and carbon dioxide sequestration is worth.

The team of students found 411 standing street trees with an economic value of close to $800,000. Carpenter called this "a nice hefty number for not very many trees."

When completed, VCU will use the tree's ecosystem service value to claim carbon offsets, which helps the university get closer to their goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050.

Students also identified spaces without trees that were viable tree wells. A tree well is any empty space along sidewalks that can be planted.

The students' research took into account a variety of factors, including which empty wells could support trees, city requirements for where trees can be planted and resident's input.

After evaluating these factors, 70 spots in need of trees were identified and 62 trees were planted.

Besides the obvious benefits of the students' research, Viverette emphasized how the project fostered increased community engagement.

"For the students it brings it full circle, it gets them from the classroom to immersion in a project," Viverette said. "It's great for our students to become more of a part of the surrounding communities."

Neighborhood Association Approval

While Viverette and VCU's Center for Environmental Studies focused on researching the existing trees in Carver, a big focus for Carpenter was securing approval from the community.

"We were really fortunate to have buy in from Jerome Legions who's the president of the neighborhood association," Carpenter said.

This helped the project get off the ground.

Carpenter also sought input from residents who had viable tree wells near their property. Out of the residents they were able to talk to, Carpenter said only five or six said no to having trees planted near them, citing maintenance concerns. Residents with tree wells near their property were also given the opportunity to choose what species would be planted.

In addition to gathering community input, Carpenter has been going to neighborhood meetings for the past six to seven months. Carpenter said he updated residents on the project at every meeting and answers questions.

"I think that has been really valuable as sort of a trust building exercise because they see me or somebody from our projects coming back consistently," Carpenter said.

"I'm really happy about the fact that it's been a really collaborative process from the beginning. It wasn't just me that pulled this off. I had a ton of help from a lot of people," Carpenter said.

Securing Community Buy In

Jerome Legions, president of the Carver Area Civic Improvement League, called the project "an education process for all parties involved." Legions had to emphasize the value of street trees to residents, as it was often seen as primarily aesthetic, but he said the project was "very well received" overall.

Legions said Carpenter and Viverette originally came to him with an idea.

"Once they had a foundation for what the idea would look like, it became a community-sponsored project from that point on," Legions said.

The neighborhood contributed funding toward the project, as Legions believes having more trees will make Carver a healthier neighborhood, sidewalk aesthetics will improve, and residents will feel safer walking around.

On the weekend of the tree planting, Legions was impressed with the turnout.

"I think the volunteers from VCU were really amazing, and they had more volunteers than they were anticipating," he said.

There are currently no concrete plans for a similar project in another neighborhood, though it's a long-term goal.

"I've just been trying to keep things focused on Carver for the time being," Carpenter said.

Carpenter said the Urban Forestry Collaborative is trying to "learn as much as we can during that process, and then eventually, maybe in a year or so, try to do another neighborhood."

Perhaps incorporating investigators from the Urban Heat Islands project, a collaboration between VCU's College of Engineering and the Science Museum of Virginia, will be in the future.

SF looks to grow revenues for planting more street trees

The head of San Francisco's new street tree program called for patience Wednesday, saying it will take an additional three years to get to all of the approximate 125,000 street trees citywide.

Meanwhile, street tree supporters are calling on The City to spend an additional $12 million a year to plant thousands of more street trees to grow the urban forest.

Since the voter-approved StreetTreeSF program launched in July 2017, The City has pruned more than 20,000 street trees, or 19 percent of the total, using a team of contracted arborists.

There were 2,020 trees removed last fiscal year after they were deemed unhealthy or structurally unsound — more than the 742 tree removals the previous year, according to information provided to the San Francisco Examiner by Carla Short, superintendent of Public Works' Bureau of Urban Forestry (BUF).

Short told the Board of Supervisors Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee Wednesday that arborists are working in sections of the city based on the highest density of trees in the worst conditions.

The plan is to prune all the trees by the end of fiscal year 2020-2021.

But as The City works its way through pruning all 125,000 street trees, there is another effort underway — to fund the planting of 6,000 street trees annually to grow the urban forest by 50,000 trees during the next two decades, The City's goal.

"As we are addressing deferred maintenance, we are removing far more trees than we have historically removed and at current rates we are not keeping up with those removals and mortality much less starting to grow the urban forest as we have envisioned," Short said. "That is one of our biggest challenges."

She said that if The City were to plant 6,000 trees a year, it "would be able to keep up with mortality and grow the urban forest." That would cost $12 million a year since it costs $2,000 to plant a tree and to water it for three years. About 4 percent of the trees die annually through a natural mortality rate.

Dan Flanagan, executive director of Friends of the Urban Forest, the nonprofit that backed the ballot measure and plants trees citywide, said he is pursuing funds for more tree plantings.

"We are going to people like Lyft and Uber, other corporations, saying, 'Hey, if you really want to invest in your city, this a great way to do it,'" Flanagan said.

The City has $2.5 million in the current fiscal year for planting and watering and the same amount next fiscal year.

Short told the Examiner that The City "planted 783 and Friends of the Urban Forest (with support from Public Works) planted 1507" bringing the total to 2,290 trees planted last year.

She noted that of the total trees planted last year, 500 were in District 11 on account of Supervisor Ahsha Safai. Safai allocated a portion of funds each board member gets each year to spend on neighborhood needs toward planting trees.

Short asked the board members for the $12 million a year. "My hope is to start a little competition amongst supervisors and try to get you all competing to be the greenest supervisor on the board and set aside funding for us that way," she said.

The $19 million a year tree maintenance program was adopted by 78 percent of the voters in November 2016 and required The City to take responsibility for all street trees in San Francisco. During lean budget years, The City had shifted responsibility of street trees onto property owners, resulting in a poorly maintained tree canopy.

James Riley, a Lake Street homeowner, told the Examiner Wednesday he was none too happy about the wait.

Riley said he called The City in May to prune the acacias in front of his home "as they were growing against the house and on the roof and clogging the built-in gutters."

"It never got done and I had to fork out $2,000 before the scaffolding could go up," Riley said in an email to the Examiner. "BUF told me they could get to it some time in 2020 since they did not have the resources to prune for a non-emergency. The trees were damaging the house and preventing me from doing needed maintenance."

Short acknowledged some of the frustration with the pace of the work during the hearing. "We are systematically working our way through this grid map. We are focusing on the worst first." Short said. "We need time. We have to ask for patience."