Our Assets Go Home at Night – How Jonathan Saperstein is Changing the Green Industry

Posted on October 30, 2016 by Jay White

I have decided that I am, at my core, a bit of a hippie. While you wouldn’t know it by looking at me, I am a Subaru driving, yoga doing, no sugar eating hippie. About the only thing I like better than my Birkenstocks and organic garden are the people that try to make the world a better place by taking care of the earth and the people that inhabit it. My botanical brother Morgan McBride works for one of these people. Jonathan Saperstein is an outstanding young man that is proving that you can profitably produce high quality landscape products while taking extremely good care of the people that grow them.

Jonathan Saperstein, CEO of Tree Town Enjoys time with his co-workers at an industry trade show

Jonathan Saperstein, CEO of Tree Town, sharing some trade show antics with his wife and a loyal customer at an industry trade show

When Jonathan Saperstein became CEO of Tree Town USA in 2015 he set out to change the way the green industry produces live goods. In many agricultural entities labor is an input not much different than seed or fertilizer. It is an expense to be managed. Jonathan sees his employees as something different. To him, his employees are the most important link in the entire production chain. His employees have a direct impact on the quality of his products and they also greatly impacted the cost at which he can sell his product. This understanding that the employees truly are the main asset of his business lead him to coin his company’s motto – “Our assets go home at night”.

Jonathan with some of Tree Town’s most valuable assets – its employees!

Today, each of the “assets” at Tree Town USA have access to one of the most progressive benefits packages in the green industry. In addition to paying the employees at rates well above the industry average, every Tree Town employee is eligible for a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical insurance and access to a 401K. Agricultural workers are also offered an incentive plan that includes safety goals and team development activities that can give them addition pay bumps every two weeks. The company offers (and encourages the employees to participate in) free GED classes and free English and Spanish classes.

This past summer, Morgan told about one of the more unique things that Jonathan has implemented at Tree Town. Each day at 7:00 am, every employee that is on site at each of their seven farms lines up and does calisthenics. This was very interesting to me and I asked Morgan if the employees were embracing it. He said, oddly enough, they were. While the time is great for stretching cold muscles it is also time for the teams to come together in a relaxed environment and listen as the supervisors and safety leads lay out the day’s work, provide safety briefings and celebrate safety milestones.

7:00 am is exercise time at all seven of Tree Town’s farms

These morning calisthenics were interesting enough to me that I decided to ask Jonathan if they were making a difference for Tree Town. Something about the way I asked the question made Jonathan grin. Jonathan said I was not the first to be skeptical about the benefits of his morning workouts. However, he informed me that since he implemented his exercise program there has been 39% decrease in incidents rates and the average cost of incident has gone from 34 cents per man hour to 4 cents a man hour.

Agricultural workers historically have low wages and very few benefits. tree Town USA is working to change that.

While Jonathan is excited about the decrease in costs his exercise program is producing, he told me the real proof that his policies are working is the increase in profitability that is allowing him to grow his business. While many live good producers are struggling to stay open, Tree Town is adding farms, employees and products. His employee focused policies have attracted (and kept) the best trained employees in the industry. Since he celebrates and rewards the contribution his employees add to the bottom line, they in turn consistently produce top quality products and provide the superior customer service that has allowed Tree Town to differentiate itself and its products in an industry that is often thought of as a commodity. In regards to Jonathan’s impact on Tree Town, David Stoeber of SiteOne Landscape supply said “As someone who has done business with Tree Town before and during Jonathan’s leadership, I can see what a huge impact Jonathan has made on Tree Town. They have gone from being a supplier on the list to The Supplier I judge the others by.”

These 670 gallon oaks are indicative of the quality trees that the employees of Tree Town consistently produce

I am very happy that I know Jonathan Saperstein. As a business man I am excited to watch a new leader in the horticultural industry take chances and implement policies that will positively impact his bottom line and hopefully change the way the green industry operates. As a humanitarian I am inspired that he is shaking up the green industry by taking care of the workers that produce the trees, shrubs and bedding plants that we use to make our little corner of the world more beautiful.

Tips for Week 25 in the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Jay White

This past weekend I harvested my first crop of elephant garlic. This was a new plant for me and I thoroughly enjoyed growing it. While it is not technically garlic (it is more closely related to leeks) it was a beautiful plant that can be used ornamentally or for its fist sized, mild, garlic tasting bulbs. My elephant garlic was given to me by a man who has grown it in his garden for 47 years. He got it from his parents who grew it for years before sharing with him. I absolutely love plants like this. Whether they are called heirloom plants or pass a long plants, they are a living link to our horticultural past. I love finding, growing and preserving these living links to our southern heritage. If you have an heirloom plant that you love, leave me a comment. I would love to hear about it.

With it long curvy scapes and big flower heads, Elephant Garlic is a useful as as ornamental as it is as a food source.

Pest Control

Invest in a few select organic insecticides– Bt for caterpillars, insecticidal soap for soft-bodied aphids, neem oil for beetles and squash bugs, spinosad for caterpillars and stink bugs. Follow label instructions, and spray only as needed. Mark the purchase date on the product container and store in a protected location, preferably indoors.
When using any insecticide, mix up only what will be needed for the plants you are treating – I rarely mix up a gallon of anything, and often get by using a one pint or one quart squirt bottle, depending on the product and number of plants needing treatment. Once I determine how much a particular product is needed per pint, I write it directly on the pesticide container so I don’t have to scour the label and recalculate every time.
Protect bees by applying pesticides in the late afternoon or evening, when bees are less active.
Control Spurge and Puslane-These two plants are some of the most difficult to control. Both grow rapidly and produce thousands of seeds. Chemical control has little effect on mature purslane. Pull these weeds and place in a plastic trash bag. Do not compost! Apply heavy mulch or solarize if possible after you remove the plants.

When mixing herbicides or pesticides mix only what you need and clearly mark each container

Vegetables

Plant okra, sweet potatoes, winter squash and peppers-Realize this is the absolute end of the spring planting season. It may be too late to plant even these in southern parts of the state.
Water correctly- It is better for your plants, and your water bill, if you apply one inch of water every five days. Water slowly in the morning to reduce evaporation loss.
Remove spent plants like green beans to avoid attracting pests.
Top dress empty rows with compost and cover with a heavy layer of mulch to prepare them for fall planting in late July

Water deeply and less frequently to encourage deep root growth and conserve water

Ornamentals

Cut fresh flowers for the house-Cut your zinnia’s, sunflowers, gomphrena, celosia and other fresh cuts early in the morning. Cut stems on 45 degree angles, strip foliage and drop immediately into cool, clean water
Plant sweet potato vine from transplant-Sweet potato vine is a great way to add lots of low maintenance color to your pots and beds. With its bright chartreuse or purple-black foliage this drought and heat tolerant plant will add LOTS of color to your summer landscape. Sweet potato vine will provide you lots of color right up to the first freeze

Fruit Trees

Pick remaining plums-Plums will continue to ripen after they are picked. Pull when they have half color and allow them to ripen inside; especially if making jelly. Over ripe fruit left on the trees, or on the ground, invites in raccoons, possums and mocking birds
Pick Peaches-Pick peaches when they are slightly soft to the touch

I share these posts on Our SimpleHomestead Blog Hop. Be sure to stop by. The “hop” has tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Tip of the Week – Week 7 in the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on February 10, 2015 by Jay White

This past weekend I planted my potatoes. While planting I got a very pleasant surprise – more potatoes! For the past two years I have wanted to try fall potatoes. However, no one sells seed potatoes in the fall. I had my best ever potato crop in the spring so this September I took my left overs and planted them. We had a very mild winter. I covered the potatoes once in December and once in January for light frosts. Then I did not get them covered for the last freeze in January. I thought the freeze ended my experiment. I cut off the frozen vines and forgot about them. That’s why I was so surprised this Sunday. As I dug my trenches for my new potatoes, my fall potatoes were literally turning up all over the place. I harvested over 20 lbs! So, it looks like you definitely can grow fall potatoes in the Zone 9 Garden. Below are more things to consider doing this weekend.

My latest garden experiment proves you can grow fall potatoes – at least in a mild winter

Vegetables

For a complete list of the vegetables you can plant now please check out the planting guide in the sidebar. If you are not sure what particular vegetable varieties to plant check out Patty Leander’s variety list in the sidebar. This is a great tool for new gardeners or for those of us who like to try different things. Also be sure to look at her seed sources. March 15 is go date for most of the veggies we like to grow in the Zone 9 spring garden. If you don’t hurry it will soon be too late to order your seeds.

Valentine’s Day is a great time to prune your roses.

Ornamentals

There are two times to prune roses – Labor Day and Valentine’s Day. This weekend reduce the size of your hybrid roses by up to one half. Also remove any dead wood. It is also a great time to open up the center of the bush. Most shrub roses will look beautiful if you have six to eight healthy, upright canes. Remove all suckers that are smaller than a pencil and top foliage by cutting branches at a 45 degree angle above a bud. Antique roses do not need as much pruning. Reduce them by no more than a third, get rid of all dead wood and open up the centers. DO NOT prune spring blooming climbers until after their first bloom.

Lawns

It is still too early to apply commercial fertilizers to your lawn. However it is a great time to aerate and add compost. When fertilizing your lawn with compost, mow closely and then spread a half to one inch of compost over the lawn. Rake it into the grass and water well. Do not mow again for a least a week. You can fertilize your lawn with compost 2,3 or 4 times a year. You really can’t add too much. Plus compost will often contain macro nutrients and trace elements that are missing from commercial fertilizers.

Buds on my redbud trees mean that all trees will soon be breaking dormancy. Spray horticultural oils now for insect control later.

Trees and Shrubs

My redbud is beginning to bud out. That is the first sign that trees are coming out of dormancy. If you want to plant any fruit trees, bare root or containerized, do it soon. The weather conditions that we have right now are perfect for allowing them to rapidly start producing the roots that will “establish” them in your landscape.

While your crepe myrtles are still bare, spray them with horticultural oil (also known as dormant oils) to mites and scale insects. Horticultural, or dormant, oils are generally refined petroleum products. They are great at controlling several pests in shrubs and fruit trees. However, they are not organic. Look for the organic equivalent that is made from cotton seed oil. Another organic, Neem oil, shows some promise as a dormant oil and research is currently being done on its effectiveness. Do not spray dormant oils after buds have broken on your trees and shrubs.

****Be sure to check out my friend Bart’s blog (Our Garden View) for more great tips for the Central and South Central garden!

I share my posts on the HomeAcre Hop. Be sure to stop by the hop. It has tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Tip of the Week – Week 4 in the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on January 22, 2015 by Jay White

We got over an inch of rain at my house last night. We are expected to get another inch today. I am thankful but I hope the sun comes out tomorrow. If it is not too muddy there are tons of tasks to take care of this weekend. Here are some of the things I am doing:

Vegetables

Week 4 in the Zone 9 garden is a very busy time. It is time to replant all of your brassicas. The brassica family includes broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and others. Click on each veggie above to read Patty Leander’s tips for growing the best brassicas possible.

Patty also wrote a great post about sugar snap peas. It is time to plant those as well. This year she has had great luck with “Amish” heirlooms. Get all the info you need to succeed with peas by reading her post “Make Room for Cool Season Peas”.

Week four is also the time to plant potatoes. The two varieties that do best for me are Red LaSoda and white Kennebecks. Buy now, cut into pieces preserving the eyes and allow to cure for a week or so before planting. Check out my post “Growing Potatoes” to learn all the other tips and tricks you need.

Cauliflower doesn’t have to be white! Try some of the colored varieties. Photo by Bruce Leander

Ornamentals

Patty’s latest post reminded me that it is time to cut back your cannas (and ginger). Cut them to the ground. Here’s another canna tip. When they start blooming, cut their flower stalks out at the base of the plant. This will encourage them to bloom more.

It is also a good time to trim up woody perennials. My bougainvillea has shed its leaves so it is ready for its annual haircut. Trim up other deciduous vines like coral honeysuckle, cross vine and wisteria.

If you want lots of flowers in early spring, start their seeds now. Two years ago I grew 100 marigold transplants. My beds never looked better. This weekend is a good time to start marigolds, petunias, begonias, periwinkles and many others.

Fruit

It is still a good time to plant bare root fruit trees. It is also a great time to plant container grown fruit trees. Container grown fruit trees can be planted anytime of the year but they will root in and become established quicker if you plant them now.

****Be sure to check out my friend Bart’s blog (Our Garden View) for more great tips for the Central and South Central garden!

This post has been shared on the HomeAcre Hop. Be sure to stop by the hop. Tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Tip of the Week – Week 3 in the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Jay White

There are two things that really need to be done in January in the lower two thirds of our state–starting tomato, pepper and egg plant seeds for transplant and planting asparagus. It is also time to start pruning fruit trees, grapes and perennial ornamentals that have been killed by the freeze.

Vegetables

I don’t want to sound like a nag, but this week is THE PERFECT TIME to plant your tomato seeds. You can also start your pepper and eggplant seeds too. Eggplant will germinate much like the tomato seeds but be prepared to give you pepper seeds a little extra time to sprout.

Besides tomatoes, asparagus is my absolute favorite vegetable to grow and eat. Plant year old crowns now. My favorite is the heirloom “Mary Washington”. However, I have had much luck with many varieties of the “Jersey” series. For more information on planting asparagus check out my post “Growing Asparagus”.

When planting, spread the roots of asparagus crowns over a mound of compost

Ornamentals

Now that we have had a freeze, it is time to trim back some of our perennials. Clumping grasses can be cut back to about ten inches. If your grass clumps did not bloom this year consider dividing them in February. Salvias can be cut back to half of their size. Root Beer plant (Hoja Santo) can be cut to the ground.

Cut clumping grasses back to 10 to 12 inches

Fruit

January and February are the best times to plant bare root fruit trees. Plant them at the depth they were grown. Determine this depth by noticing where the color changes at the top of the roots and the bottom of the trunk.

January is also a good time to prune fruit trees and grapes in the lower two thirds of our state.

****Be sure to check out my friend Bart’s blog (Our Garden View) for more great tips for the Central and South Central garden!

This post has been shared on the HomeAcre Hop. Be sure to stop by the hop. Tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

January is good time to prune fruit trees. Definitely do a little research before you start cutting.

My Best Peaches Ever (and how they got that way)

Posted on July 10, 2014 by Jay White

I am finishing up the last of the best peaches I have ever grown. While this year’s harvest was not the largest I have ever grown numerically, the individual peaches were the biggest and sweetest that have ever come off of my tree.

Pinching half of the buds from your peach tree will yield bigger peaches next summer. Photo courtsey of Dr. David Byrne -Texas A&M

I wish I could say that I did something to produce these wonderful peaches. My unusually large peaches were the result of a bit of bad luck that that kind of turned out to be a blessing in disguise. On March 3 we got a very bad late season freeze. When it hit, the redbuds, plums and peaches were in full bloom. When the ice thawed, my beautiful redbuds looked horrible and all of the flowers were gone from my fruit trees. I was sure this freeze would ensure that I would harvest exactly zero peaches and plums this summer.

Two of my favorite things–fresh, home grown peaches and Texas Ware bowls!

While my prediction turned out to be correct for the plums, the peaches surprised me. A couple of weeks after the freeze I noticed little peaches beginning to form. Over the next few weeks, the peaches that survived the freeze turned into HUGE peaches. Now I don’t mean that my peaches were super huge, but they were much larger than they had ever been in the past.

I love peeling the skins off of peaches after they have been blanched. So fun to squeeze the peach and see it literally jump out of its skin!

Turns out, the freeze actually did me a favor. While researching my next Texas Gardener article about new white peaches from Texas A&M, I discovered that commercial producers routinely remove (pinch) up to half the buds on each of their trees. This bud removal allows their trees to produce BIGGER PEACHES!

Diced peaches in another Texas Ware bowl ready for canning.

When I read this, I understood why my peaches were so big and so good. The freeze “pinched” my buds for me. Until now I did not know that this was something that you needed to do. However, after seeing the results first hand, it is a garden chore that I will now be sure to do every year!

Right now I only have one producing peach tree. It was literally the first thing I planted when Sally and I bought our little place in Brenham. Since Sally and I are empty nesters, this one tree produces enough for us to enjoy fresh and also make lots of preserves. This year, once we ate all we could, she made 24 jars of peach preserves. If you would like to make your own peach preserves here is a great post with video from the Georgia Peach Council. Enjoy!

I am lucky to be married to one of the cutest “canners” in the world!

Vitex-TheTexas Lilac (Vitex agnus-castus)

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Jay White

It has now been a whole month since I finished my horticulture degree at A&M. In that time I have had three people approach me to do landscapes for them (it is interesting to me that people think all horticulturists are landscapers). One horseman wants me to landscape his two entry gates, my family cemetery wants me to landscape their entrance and another person wants an “LSU Garden” in their yard. While all three of these projects are very different, all three will feature a very lovely and durable plant – Vitex (Vitex agnus-castus).

The 12″ flower spike of the Vitex are beautiful and irresistible to butterflies and hummingbirds

Vitex is a small flowering tree that is, in my opinion, one of the best ornamental trees you can own. Its long, curvy, purple-blue flower spikes have earned the vitex the nickname of “The Texas Lilac”. In addition to its beautiful flower spikes, this little tree can take the heat, endure the drought and is resistant to most pests. It attracts butterflies and hummingbirds and deer do not like it. With all it has going for it, this drought resistant tree really is a perfect choice for the Texas homeowner.

Vitex are typically grown as a multi trunked tree. The multi-trunk look is achieved through pruning. When grown as a tree they grow to about 15 feet. However, some varieties can get as tall as 35 feet. If left alone from seed, the Vitex will grow into a lovely shrub that makes a stunning hedge that can, with regular deadheading, produce those long, lovely flower spikes throughout the summer.

My Hyperion daylilies pair nicely with a Vitex I have left in a shrub form

You can find Vitex with pink flowers, mauve flowers and white flowers. However, most of the Vitex sold in the trade have a purple-blue colored flower that is often called lilac. The three most common varieties sold here in Texas include Shoal Creek, Montrose and Le Compte. My friends at Tree Town USA are about to release a new, and as of yet unnamed, dark blue flowering variety. Look for them this fall at all of the major nurseries or your local big box.

If you want to grow your own Vitex, plant it in the fall. Like most trees, the cooler weather of fall will allow the plant to establish itself with much less water. You can also plant it in the winter when it is dormant. If you miss both of those opportunities you can still plant it in early spring. Just remember though, the longer you wait, the more effort and water it will take to fully root.

Since all of these lovely little flowers produce seeds, Vitex can be a bit invasive

While I do love this tree, it does have a couple of small problems. First, each of those little flowers on those 12” flower stalks will produce a little seed. Because of this it can be a bit invasive. This is not a huge problem for the homeowner. The weed eater and mower can easily control all of the volunteers that sprout in the yard. However, if planted near a creek or tank, the plant can easily escape and create enough of a problem that it is currently listed as an invasive species on the Texas Invasives website (http://www.texasinvasives.org/plant_database/detail.php?symbol=VIAG). You can control the spread of this plant by diligently deadheading each spent flower spike before the seeds develop. The other little problem is allergies. If you have a sensitivity to tree pollen you may want to avoid this tree. All of those flowers produce pollen and many people claim to be allergic to it.

As I drive around I notice more and more Vitex in yards, commercial landscapes and along the roads and highways of our great state. I think this is great. Vitex is a beautiful and versatile plant that blooms throughout the summer and thrives on average annual rainfall. It is no wonder that the Texas Highway Department has added them to their list of preferred plants. If this plant thrives along the hot and dry roadsides and medians of our great state, imagine how well it will perform for you in your yard!

Signs of Spring

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Jay White

Each year I like to do a post that announces the arrival of spring in our part of Texas. In the past I have written about budding bluebonnets, magenta blooms on the red buds, sweetly scented narcissus and the return of the purple martins. This year, I got a much less beautiful reminder that Spring is right around the corner.

Some of my wife’s bluebonnets. Sally has worked for years to spread our state flower all over our yard.

Last weekend Sally and I were on the back deck. She became very excited and told me she saw smoke coming from the back of the Cassita. I of course ran to see what was on fire. I was relieved to find nothing burning so I turned to tell her everything was ok. As soon as I turned toward her the male cedar tree (ashe juniper) over the chicken coop literally exploded and released a cloud of pollen that looked very much like smoke! Now if I were not so allergic to cedar I might have found this a whole lot more fascinating. Ok, I still found it fascinating, but I knew this natural marvel was going to cause me a whole lot of problems over the next few weeks.

Here is a shot of our little guest house that Sally thought was on fire. We call it the “casssita”.

Now I have lived 51 years and I have never witnessed this. I actually grew up in a cedar break in McLennan county and I never got to see the trees release their pollen. My itchy eyes, stuffy nose and headaches always told me the pollen had been released but I had never seen it with my own two eyes.

This is the male cedar tree that released its pollen in my face!

The timing of this has been interestingly fortuitous. A couple of weeks ago a friend sent me a link from Austin’s KVUE News. Someone actually caught this phenomenon on camera and sent the film to them. If you would like to see it for yourself, just click on the video clip below.

So, in honor of almost historic levels of cedar pollen in our area, I am now pleased to announce that spring has arrived in Central and South Central Texas. If you feel like gambling, realize that after February 15, there is only a 10% chance that there will be another freeze in the Houston area. I am not much of a gambler. I am still going to wait until March 15 to do most of my planting. However, this is a good time to start getting your beds ready for planting. This weekend I will be tilling, weeding and adding lots of compost to my beds. If the weather holds (and I am not laid up in bed with a headache and a runny nose) I am looking forward to some very sore muscles and a very achy back on Monday. Happy Spring Y’ all!!!

Trimming Trees Correctly – Don’t Overdo It! by Janet Laminack

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Jay White

Some of you out there make yard work way too hard. For example, leaves don’t have to be raked and bagged. You can mow them into tiny bits and let them break down in the lawn. Or you can rake them into your flowerbeds as a mulch. But they can be messy and ill-behaved and blow around places, so I know that some people really need to rake and bag leaves and that is ok.

Downed leaves make great mulch

Did you know that trees don’t have to be trimmed? That’s a real shocker, isn’t it? The three primary reasons a tree should be pruned or trimmed is if they have branches that are dead, diseased or damaged. There are many other reasons that people trim and prune their shade trees but not all of them are very effective or recommended, such as pruning to control size. Find a tree or shrub with a mature size within your desired limits. Removing more than a third of a plant at a time is not recommended ever, so bear that in mind when charging about with your loppers and chainsaws.

Trees will need to be trimmed if branches are crossing and rubbing. Or if a tree is touching your house or other structures, pruning is appropriate.

Trees don’t “have” to be trimmed. These lovely cottonwoods and sycamores have never seen a a pruner or saw and they look pretty spectacular

Sometimes trees are thinned out in the canopy. This is primarily done to allow more sunlight in for growing grass under the tree. Trees and turfgrass don’t actually mix too well. But, a tree adds so much more value to your home that I tend to always side with the tree over lawn health. Planting a groundcover or other shade loving plants under a tree is an option if it’s too shady for grass but you want something green. Trees don’t need to be thinned out because they are too heavy or thick.

Trees are also trimmed up to open up a view or sight line. This is sometimes necessary and advisable. Removal of a few of the lower branches so that you don’t clothesline yourself while mowing is reasonable. However, be mindful not to overdo it creating a lion’s tail. This can leave a tree less structurally sound.

Crape myrtles are commonly trimmed back severely or topped in the winter to encourage blooming. They do flower on new growth, but pruning is not necessary in order for them to put on a spectacular show the next summer. Topping can cause the tree to lose its wonderful branching structure.

You don’t have to commit crepe murder to get your crepe myrtles to produce beautiful blooms each year. Photo from Greg Grant on Aggie-Horticulture. http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/publications/stopthecrape.html

Yard work can be tough, but maybe not as hard as you have been making it all these years. If you have questions about how to care for your trees or landscape, give us a call at 940.349.2892, email master.gardener@dentoncounty.com or visit www.dcmga.com.

It’s Tree Planting Time by Janet Laminack

Posted on October 13, 2013 by Jay White

There is an old saying that goes “The very best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago”. If you didn’t do it twenty years ago you can make amends by planting one now. Fall is the perfect time for planting trees in Texas. Fall planting allows a tree to establish itself in the cooler temperatures of winter and spring.

October is the best time of the year to plant trees in Texas. This weekend, I planted two large Empire Live Oaks from Tree Town USA in the front yard of nationally known decorator Holly Mathis (http://www.hollymathisinteriors.com/).

When choosing trees, people often want a quick growing tree. Quick growing sometimes means quick dying, so it’s best to be patient and pick a quality tree. Some good choices for our area include oaks like burr, chinkapin, red oak and live oak. Lacebark elm and cedar elm do well and pecans also make nice shade trees. But pecans are not a good choice for planting over driveways or for the squirrel-adverse. You can also consider smaller trees or large shrubs such as redbud, crape myrtle, desert willow, and wax myrtle. True, these trees won’t be gigantic shade trees, but they can make a positive impact and might be more appropriate and attractive by staying in scale with your home and smaller urban lot.

When I plant a tree I use my shovel to get the hole width and depth correct. Width should be 1.5 times as big as the pot and the depth should be 2 or 3 inches shorter than the soil depth in the pot

When deciding where to plant a tree, it’s essential to consider its mature size. Consider how big this tree will be in 10, 20, or 30 years. Make sure you don’t plant a tree too close to power lines, buildings or other trees. You also need to check that the tree isn’t too close to anything underground as well. Before you dig, call 811 to have the underground utilities in your lawn marked for free. Planting trees or shrubs might seem like minor digging, but not knowing where underground lines are could put you in danger or disrupt service in your neighborhood (or both depending on just how serious the sports fans are in your area!) For more information, visit www.call811.com.

The handle of my shovel was almost exactly 1.5 times as wide as the pot of my 45 gallon Empire Live Oak. Note the black line on the handle. This is how I determine the depth of the hole.

Trees can increase the value of a home’s resale. Properly placed trees can also help with heating and cooling expenses of the home. A deciduous tree (one that loses its leaves in the winter) placed on the south or west side of a home provides shade and cooling in the summer and allows for warming up in the winter.

A big tree requires a big hole and some help. I had two grown men help me with my 45 gallon Empire Live Oak.

I’d recommend doing some research on your own in order to pick your tree. Online sources such as the Texas Forest Service Tree Selector (http://texastreeplanting.tamu.edu/) and the Earth-Kind Plant Selector (http://earthkind.tamu.edu) can provide you with much more information on the particular traits of trees that work well in North Texas.

When back filling the hole, it is a good idea to fill 1/3 of the whole the with soil and then saturate. Use the handle of your shovel to tamp in the soil. Then add 1/3 more soil and repeat. This will remove any root killing air pockets.

When back filling the hole, it is a good idea to fill 1/3 of the hole with soil and then saturate. Use the handle of your shovel to tamp in the soil. Then add 1/3 more soil and repeat. This will remove any root killing air pockets.

As far as planting trees a very common mistake is planting a tree too deep. Keep the same soil line on the trunk when it’s in the ground as it was in the container. If this kind of exactness makes you nervous, place the tree slightly higher. Some settling may occur and it is very important to make sure the tree is not too deep. Once the tree is planted, don’t forget about it. For the first three years it will need more care while it gets established such as supplemental water and reducing the competition of weeds and grass. For more details on proper tree planting and more tree choices for our area, check out www.dcmga.com, email us at master.gardener@dentoncounty.com or call 940.349.2892.

This post has been shared on the Homestead Barn Hop. These’s hops are a great way to gather tons of great info from bloogers around the country. Be sure to visit!