Site Selection

If your group is interested in a neighborhood planting, you've probably brainstormed a number of possible sites at your initial meeting. Did you overlook your own yards? The primary purpose of this guide is to create community, and you can do that just as easily - sometimes easier -- on private property. You won't have to consider rules and regulations -just sensible locations! And think of how much you could get done, working together, learning together, buying in bulk and transforming your street and making new friends all at once.

Possible Locations Around Your Home

Perhaps you can replace broken, ugly fences with living, green ones or create a new neighborhood identity. Consider planting for sustainability as well as design. Shade trees can keep your homes cool and will transpire moisture, so look for spaces where they can block direct sun on the west and south sides of each house. They'll cut air-conditioning costs (along with carbon dioxide and other emissions from power plants). A species note for winter warmth: choose a dense evergreen (that keeps its leaves or needles) to plant on the north side to block winter winds; choose deciduous (that drops leaves in the fall) for the south side to let in winter sunlight. If you want to intercept noise, wind, eyesores, or dust, think about planting in clusters or double rows. Always plant food-producing trees as far away as possible from streets or old refuse sites. Toxic lead does not decompose and may be drawn into the fruit. If you want to hold a slope, use closely spaced pines or redwoods.

If this is what you want to do first, stop now and refer back to "How to Use This Guide" for more information about planting around your home and the homes of your neighbors.

Moving Away From Home

Once your yards are green havens and your patios and rooftops are converted and shaded, move on! Street parkways (the strips of grass running between the sidewalk and the street) or paved street sidewalks are usually regulated by a local government agency. They're a good choice but will almost certainly require permits to plant so, if there's room, consider first planting in front of houses on private property but near the sidewalk. It might achieve a similar effect, and you won't need anyone's permission but the homeowners', who are likely all on your committee.

Consider also a median strip (the center of the street) or even traffic islands. These are regulated too, but they're one of the obvious choices in shading streets. Are there any undeveloped parklands or other areas of waste ground that have little foot traffic? They're probably in a more native state and may be appropriate for planting seedlings. Hillside slopes too steep for development can be planted to help hold the soil and add greenery.

Once you start looking, you'll be surprised by the hidden spaces you can soften by planting trees. Some are conspicuous, like planting in and around the stalls of a parking lot, or in a schoolyard, where trees and mulch will cool the blacktop, absorb some runoff and shade the kids from damaging ultraviolet rays. But also consider closing the alleys behind houses and making them a common park space. Consider temples, churches, or other private buildings; vacant lots; city or county parks; flood control channels to combat erosion; landfills; railroad rights-of-way; graffiti-covered walls (try vines or espaliered trees); freeways to absorb fumes from traffic; industrial sites to combat pollution; or even the bare strips of land beneath high-tension power lines.

What Makes a Site Practical?

Think about all the room a tree needs to grow. First look up. Are there overhead wires or obstructions that will limit the height or spread of the tree? Look around. Is it a place where spreading branches might get bumped by trucks or buses? Look down. Measure how much space there is for the root crown (the dimension of the trunk at ground surface). Think of the tree's root system, which is usually a "mirror image" of what's above ground. Determine whether there's room for it to spread. Are there underground pipes or utilities? You and your neighbors won't appreciate a tree whose roots are breaking your pipes. Utility companies, too, are particularly concerned about tree placement. Original bad placement can lead to bad feelings between communities and utilities, who spend millions of dollars each year just maintaining and removing trees that are interfering with overhead service.

Check on the long-term availability of the site. It should be available and intact for a significant part of the trees' lifespan. Are trees likely to be cut down to make room for development, expansion, or street widening?

You must get permission -- and with luck, enthusiastic cooperation -- from the property owner to plant trees on the site. Unauthorized plantings are illegal-and stupid! Government agencies have a right to remove trees for which permits have not been granted.

Taking Care of What's There

If you're interested in tree care rather than planting, you probably have in mind a problem site that needs attention. In a way, it's a much more mature route to take-recognizing that we should appreciate and care for what's already there before we add to the maintenance burden of the community.

Be realistic. Leave the pruning of large old trees to professional tree trimmers. Instead, concentrate on finding sites where your group can pull weeds and water trees or remove stakes and ties that are strangling trunks. If maintenance is a big problem in your city, find out why. What's the city's tree maintenance budget? Don't automatically point the finger at the responsible department. Perhaps they need help from citizens to advocate more training for employees or a bigger budget to hire more trimmers. Have your role be one of assistance, rather than hindrance, to a well-managed department.

Your group may be interested in looking after neglected trees on private land. Make sure you don't end up simply being a replacement for the local tree trimmers. The goal is to improve the quality of community trees. Your first step is to contact the person or firm that owns the land and explain that the trees are in need of care. This step may even involve showing a representative or the groundskeeper what's needed. You may decide that you'd like to take charge of caring for the trees; perhaps the community enjoys them and would be interested in doing the work. However you work with landowners, approach it as a mutually beneficial partnership. Don't provoke a confrontation. Chances are, the landowner will be as interested as you in improving the appearance of a valuable property and will appreciate your concern if it's tactfully expressed.

Species Selection

Choosing trees should be one of the most difficult yet rewarding processes of your project. It's vital you choose a tree that both meets your goals and can thrive within the constraints of the planting site.

Fall in Love

The fact is, this relationship is like a marriage. Ideally, we marry people we love. In the same way, we should embark upon a love affair with trees, allowing ourselves to be seduced by their magic. Most tree lovers have a list of favorites that they love because of their finer points and regardless of their drawbacks.

Knowing the good and bad of your favorites means you'll be able more skillfully to match the tree with the location. You'll know not to recommend a deciduous tree to an obsessively tidy lawn fanatic, or a tree with invasive roots for a sidewalk planting.

But there's more to it than that. Expecting any book to provide the definitive guide to the best trees is like asking a mentor for a list of the best people in the world. The list is different for everyone. It's the same with trees. Nobody can really explain why his or her favorites are on a pedestal. They just are. Before you fall in love with just any old oak or pine, it's important to know a few things about yourself. What are the qualities you like in a tree? Do you want it strong and independent? Or do you want it to be more sensitive and vulnerable, dependent on you for loving care and attention?

The Case for Natives

If you like an independent that doesn't require much attention, look for native species that are meant to grow where you are. They are environmentally sound, provide and maintain food supplies and habitat to native birds and wildlife, and have the least impact on resources. Don't introduce exotic species in forests or undeveloped urban areas. They may require extreme amounts of water. They may drop leaves that inhibit the growth of other vital plants. In fact, if you're working to restore damaged ecosystems, plant only natives, preferably from seed stock collected in the same area.

Cruising

There are tree-selection and planting guidebooks available for most areas. Consulting them is vital, but books alone are not sufficient. Learning characteristics can give you only limited experience of a tree you might be spending the rest of your life with.

The best way to select a tree is to personally meet its family before you make a commitment. Unlike choosing a mate, you have a chance to see how your intended will behave and what it will look like after one year or five, ten, twenty-five, or even fifty years. Go out looking for trees that attract you. You can cruise the streets for an idea of those that do well in your community. Go to your planting site and see what thrives around it. If you don't recognize the species, cut a sample and ask a nursery for identification. Or go to an arboretum or botanic garden. College campuses often have a large selection of trees. Check them out. How do they look? How do they behave? Do they drop leaves, fruit, branches? Do they have potentially damaging roots? Ask the grounds personnel what it's like working with specific trees. What about their long-term care including pruning and feeding? Do they have any personality problems?

Go to those who know. Ask your city, county, or state forester. Quiz botany or biology teachers, garden-club members, or certified arborists. If you don't get anywhere, go back to books that can help you identify the trees in your area.

If your site includes overhead wires, call your utility company. Many are now publishing excellent free booklets to help you choose trees that won't mess up their wires. If you want to plant larger trees, see if you can set them to one side or the other of the wire, and choose a narrow or conical tree.

If you're planting street trees on public property, you may have the entire selection procedure made simple for you; your city might have a master tree plan that specifies the kind of tree for each street or determines the species based on what's been planted in the past. Save yourself hours of frustration. Check first. In special situations, officials may consider a newer tree if they're convinced of its safe attributes and good chance of survival.

Basic Prep

Get to know the planting site and the qualities that will limit or guide what you ultimately select. Once you've found some trees you like, go back and recheck how they'll fit your site. If your site's already chosen, look at it now through different eyes. What light-both natural and man-made-does it offer? Is the site in full sun or partially shaded? Is it completely shaded by a tall building? Does it receive artificial light from street lamps all night long? Is it in a spot, such as against a white wall or in a parking lot, where it would receive an extraordinary amount of reflected sunlight or heat that could scald? Is the site vulnerable to turbulent wind or constant wind from one direction? Are your trees likely to have to stand up to fog or salt?

List all the constraints, then think of the shapes and qualities you're after. For example, if you require a tree to grow in the shade of a tall building, think about seeking out a true "understory" forest tree-one that grows to medium height under the largest trees in a forest or rainforest.

Do you want a tall, columnar tree or one with an oval or spreading, umbrella-shaped head? Do you want it to let in winter sunlight but also provide summer shade? Do you want flowers, fruit, nuts, scent, birds, butterflies, wildlife?

Specimen Selection:
Choosing Your Trees at a Nursery

When you're purchasing, remember the old adage: Buyer beware! Check the following.

• Size. Younger trees are the more vigorous. Beware a tree whose size is disproportionate to the container; the roots may be either insufficiently developed or potbound.
• Caliper and taper. Six-foot-tall specimens should have a half-to-one-inch trunk caliper (diameter) at six inches above ground level. Branches should be smaller than the trunk.
• Foliage distribution and branch structure. Half the foliage should be on branches growing from the upper third of the trunk, half on branches on the lower two-thirds.
• Roots. You shouldn't be able to see the roots where they attach to the trunk, but you should be able to see the root crown (like a knuckle.) Check for thick circling roots that indicate a pot-bound tree.

Next: Getting the right permits