How to Plant a Tree 🌿 Violet Crown trail 🌿 Free Trees from TreeFolks

NURSERY NOTES: the ever-amazing TreeFolks is offering to deliver free trees to Austin residents. Cedar Elm, Bur Oak, Live Oak and Mexican Buckeye available. application form. (some restrictions apply) And a hearty thanks again to TreeFolks and all my fellow Shade Brigade volunteers who helped promote the Shade the Streets program, and handed out 800 native trees at a packed Eco-Fest in Bartholomew Park on Saturday morning. 🌿 The Natural Gardener continues to shine with its rich variety of Saturday morning classes. "Fall & Winter Bloomers," "Mycelium Builds Community," and "Gourds 101" are among the upcoming events. Details 🌿 Yarborough Public Library hosts a native seed swap at 1 p.m. on Nov 23. Yarborough 🌿

FOOD FORESTER JACOB ZIVIN at a recent "Unsung Heroes of Pollination" celebration in the grounds of St. Edward's University. This Roots and Wings Festival event included a lecture, music, planting. . . and American Beautyberry tea. 🌿

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VIOLET CROWN NEWS: join the Hill Country Conservancy tomorrow (Sat.) to celebrate its feat of creating 13 miles of trails — "a milestone, 18 years in the making." Hikers can now walk from Zilker Park to the Wildflower Center. Meeting place: near 4801 La Crosse Ave. 9 a.m.

Violet Crown Details ❦

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TREE SAVIOR MARGRET HOFFMAN: after surviving Hitler's Germany, Margret moved to Austin, and eventually became a member of our city council, where she advocated for sidewalks, and trees. Hoffman created the first of the city's tree ordinances in 1983, and is remembered today by an oak-filled traffic island, across the road from the city chambers. Austin Chronicle ❦

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FARMING ANTS & FUNGI: when dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago, ants and fungi started a partnership — a form of "mutualism" that benefitted both parties. Essentially, ants are farmers, and today they continue this tradition. Knowridge ❦

THE AUSTIN GARDEN relies entirely on support from its readers. Please consider making a donation to support this bi-monthly publication. Whether an annual or monthly donation, all are welcomed. (At the moment only 5% of readers support

this publication) Many thanks in advance. PayPal link ❦

How to Plant a Tree

by Amanda Moon

Fall and winter are the perfect times to plant trees in Texas. Our soil does not freeze and our temperatures don’t often fall below 15 degrees Fahrenheit, making it better to transplant than any other time of the year.

Cooler temperatures also allow us to get away with less watering after planting and a longer period of establishment before the hot temperatures head our way again. Larger shade trees, i.e. oaks and elms, are especially grateful for a fall/winter planting date.

Another benefit is that there is lower transplant stress on a tree that is dormant. Even evergreens tend to take a top growth 'break' during the winter.

Here is an imporant tip when buying a tree in winter. To make sure that you have a healthy tree, even when it has lost all its leaves, scratch the end of a few branches through the bark with your fingernail. If you see green, the tree is still alive to the tips of the branches — a very good sign of viability.

TEN TRICKS OF THE TRADE

1. Choose the right location. Leave enough space for your tree to grow and stay clear of power lines above and below the ground. Call 811- a free service to have utility lines marked. It is always better to be safe than sorry, and the call is required in some circumstances too.

2. Double check your soil type against the tree you want to plant. A pecan, for example, will struggle if planted in very shallow soil.

3. Make sure that you start with a healthy specimen from a reputable source. Most local nurseries buy their stock from Texas growers and so the tree is already better adjusted to our climate.

4. Dig an irregular hole. Tree roots can be lazy and a perfectly round hole can trick a tree into believing it is still in the pot and it may fail to grow roots outwards.

5. Make the hole a few inches shallower than the root ball of the tree. Use the length of a shovel to measure. In time the tree will settle in flat. The roots of a tree planted too deep can slowly suffocate.

6. When you remove the pot, if the tree doesn't come out easily, roll the pot sideways on the ground to loosen or cut away if necessary. Do not put unneeded pressure on the trunk of the tree.

7. Water and press down the soil with your hands as you fill in to eliminate air pockets.

8. Use a mix of mostly native soil and a compost or soil blend made for tree planting.

9. Only cover the root ball a few inches and don’t pile up soil or mulch around the trunk (ever!). Create a donut-style ring around the outside root-ball area of the tree for a water basin, using extra soil to build it. Top dress with mulch to preserve soil moisture.

10. Water in again one final time into the center of the ring using a root stimulator such as Superthrive or Medina Soil Activator to encourage quicker rooting.

Some final thoughts….

Make sure after your new tree is planted that you water deeply at least once a week. Increase watering the later into the hotter months you plant. Don’t stake the tree unless you are planting in a windy location. Un-staked trees are stronger and at maturity are better at withstanding windstorms.

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Whoever said that a tree hole must be twice as wide as the pot clearly had never tried digging in our “soil”!

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Avoid using chemical fertilizers on trees, especially during their first three seasons. This is the amount of time it takes for a tree to become fully established. The roots are sensitive and can burn easily during this time.

Apply compost and organic root stimulators. After they're established, use an organic fertilizer during the growing season.

Continue watering as needed to keep the tree healthy. A drought-stressed tree cannot always revive itself to its former glory when the rains come again.

A few specifics for those special situations.

Our soil is tough to dig through sometimes. If you can’t go down more than a few inches, create a large raised bed with all those extra boulders lying around and plant up. Make sure you give the tree a decent width and height to the bed based on the final size of the chosen species.

And lastly, whoever said that a tree hole must be twice as wide as the pot clearly had never tried digging in our “soil”!

Be sure to make it wide enough so that once the tree is in the ground you can get your arm in around it to push the soil fully down. Otherwise, I (and the tree) forgive you if it isn’t any bigger than that! ❦