Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Tree Planting at Patterson Park

Last Saturday, me and a couple of friends volunteered to plant trees at Patterson Park in Austin. The event was organized by a local non profit organization called Tree Folks. The organization does tree planting around Austin and works in association with city of Austin parks and recreation department. We went there to volunteer as part of the Art of Living Austin's community service imitative.

The holes to plant trees had been pre dug using one of the city's big machines. All we had to do was shovel out the mud from the pit, put the tree into the pit and pack soil around the roots. And once tree is planted rake some mulch around the tree. We planted all kinds of trees but I only remember a couple of names like bald cypress, desert willow and live oak. I was fortunate to meet a lady who serves on City of Austin’s forestry board, through her and the rest of the tree folk volunteers; I learnt a few interesting things about trees and planting them.
  1. The depth of the pit should not be more than the height of the pot
  2. The pit diameter can be 2 to 3 times wider than pot diameter
  3. Never make the edges or bottom of the pit too smooth.
  4. Never put mulch so that it covers the shoot (leave at least a few inches between mulch and shoot), for it might kill the tree.
  5. Pack the mud around the tree as much as possible and never leave air gap in the mud as the roots stop growing once they encounter an air pocket.
  6. Bermuda grass is an exotic invasive species and a non native while buffalo grass is native (the lady mentioned a few more but I don't remember).
  7. A freshly planted tree needs around 1 inch of water per week for 2 years for it to settle down. After 2 years it will grow/survive on its own.
  8. Desert willow as the name suggests needs lot less water to grow than weeping willow.

Some one mentioned an old Chinese proverb,” The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the second best time is now".

It was an interesting chilly day with temperature in range of 45F-55F and I was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts and needless to say I was chilled out (literally). On the whole we had fun. I will try post some pictures when I get them from our volunteer lead.


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