Plant a Tree for Arbor Day!

I, for one, LOVE trees. When we bought our home, there were 4 trees on our acre lot. One towering pine was SO close to the foundation than it needed to be taken down promptly. And another had to be removed for our kitchen addition. Cue allll the tears!

WELL, to add insult to injury, our neighborhood was rocked by an EF3 tornado and an inland hurricane called a deracho (within a 2 year time period!) that damaged our last two trees, as well as almost every other tree in our neighborhood. It’s a pretty sad landscape around here. Check out those trees in the background of the pic below.

*This post is sponsored by STIHL. Thank you for supporting the fabulous brands that make Reality Daydream possible!*

We’ve spent the winter thinking about types of trees and placement, and now that the weather is nice, we’re ready to pull the trigger! Just in time for Arbor Day! (April 30th!)

We chose a Katsura Tree because it’s a fairly fast-growing shade tree that’s known for it’s beautiful color-changing foliage throughout the seasons.

We’re working with a landscape architect to think ahead and lay things out for putting in a patio in a few months. He’s very knowledgeable and taught us a lot about trees and how to plant them. You can also use this helpful guide as a resource for planting and caring for your trees.

These are the steps we took for planting this baby!

• Remove sod 2.5 times the diameter of the root ball
• Dig a hole the depth of the root ball (separate and save the good soil!)
• Check the placement o the tree… the top of the root ball should sit slightly higher than the ground.
• Tease those roots!
• Backfill the soil, pressing down by walking on it to remove any air pockets that could kill the roots.
• Soil should be mounded to the center of the tree.
• Apply about 3-4″ mulch
• Water until it starts puddling around the edge of where the sod was cut.

Arbor Day is the perfect day to plant a tree and honor Mother Nature! We’re so excited to watch this Katsura grow over the years.

Some of the tools we love to use for upkeep and pruning are hand pruners, loppers, and pruning saws.

We hope that you’re inspired to joining us (and STIHL!) in planting a tree this Arbor Day.

If you could pick any type of tree to plant in your yard, what would you choose?!

~Bethany