Queens Botanical Garden Blog

Some of you may be wondering, how can I get a tree planted in my neighborhood? On the MillionTreesNYC website, you can read more about the City’s Tree Planting Commitment, but essentially, there are 3 ways for you as an individual to get a free tree through the MillionTreesNYC program.

1)      Block Planting- The NYC Department of Parks and Recreation plants street trees through their Central Forestry & Horticulture Division . To determine which blocks to plant first, they identify neighborhoods that have a low tree canopy cover (amount of green foliage that can be seen from an aerial view), coupled with high population density. In addition, the Parks Department has identified six target neighborhoods that are of greatest need for trees, called Trees for Public Health (TPH) neighborhoods.

2)      Request a Tree- You can request a street tree to be planted in front of one or more addresses. Call 311 or submit your request online. Trees will be planted on a first come, first serve basis. Remember to keep your service request tracking number to check up on your request.

3)      Tree Giveaways- New York City residents can pick up a free tree at one of our Tree Giveaways, occurring at various locations in each borough every spring and fall. These trees must be planted on private property, such as front and backyards, commercial properties, community gardens and faith-based institutions.

About the Author:  Hi, my name is Chelsea Clarke, and I am an AmeriCorps member working as the Queens MillionTreesNYC Stewardship Corps Outreach Coordinator at Queens Botanical Garden. I work to set-up Street Tree Care Workshops at the Garden and in Queens neighborhoods where MillionTreesNYC has planted new street trees. Along with the NYC Compost Project in Queens and the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation (NYCDPR), we teach these workshops to inform New York City residents (people like you) how to properly care for your new street trees to ensure that they grow tall and strong to provide you and your community with all the benefits that trees can! Not only do I offer these workshops, but I also work with the NYCDPR at the Central Forestry office to gain insight into the entire tree planting process. Stay tuned for more blog posts from me in the next few weeks about tree care and street tree planting processes, from tree procurement to stump removal.

A street tree planting is a very curious and wonderful occurrence, something one should feel lucky to witness. If you haven’t been fortunate enough to stumble upon a tree planting while going about your everyday business in New York City, keep reading to shed some light on the mystery and “magic” surrounding the MillionTreesNYC street tree plantings!

In the MillionTreesNYC program, there are two seasons for street tree planting, Fall and Spring. The fall planting season begins in October and extends through December. The spring planting season begins mid-March and ends in May or until all the trees are in the ground. Street tree plantings have just finished for this spring 2011 planting season!

Surveying and Marking

First, we need to determine appropriate locations for tree plantings. Foresters begin surveying neighborhoods for block plantings and individual requests a few months in advance of the start of the planting season. In surveying a planting space, foresters take into account overhead wires, underlying infrastructure, sidewalk width, and proximity to driveways, fire hydrants, parking meters, intersections, bus stops, and more. If the location is found to be suitable for a tree, the forester will select the appropriate tree species to be planted there, and spray-paint the sidewalk with white brackets that indicate the size of the tree pit. They will also paint a “T” on the curb for “Tree”.

Before any work can be done to the sidewalk, utility (gas, electric, and telecommunication) lines must be marked by their respective utility companies in yellow, red, and orange spray paint, respectively. If these utility lines run through the proposed location, the location will be voided, and a tree will be planted at another location.

Saw-Cutting and Excavation

Our street trees need space to establish their roots! If the location is free of utilities, the sidewalk and underlying soil will be excavated for tree planting! Typically, sidewalk saw-cutting and pre-excavation occur far in advance of a tree planting.

During saw-cutting, our contractors use a special machine to cut a rectangle out of the sidewalk.  The size of this rectangle will depend on the width of the existing sidewalk and any other known obstacles, above or below ground. After saw-cutting, a large machine will jackhammer the rectangle to break up the cement.

This machine can then scoop up the slabs of concrete and load them into a truck to be further broken-up and disposed of.

Who would have thought that there would be all this earthy brown stuff underneath our city?! Yes, believe it or not there’s soil under your feet, even in the concrete jungle!

Once the sidewalk has been removed, the Claw digs down and removes two feet of compacted dirt that lacks the nutrients for the trees to establish and grow.

If the tree is not ready to be planted, the newly dug pit will be back-filled with fresh, new, nutrient-rich topsoil. The contractors will return a few weeks later to plant the tree.

Oftentimes, new trees are planted in already existing tree pits. In this case, the pit may be widened to accommodate improved standards for street tree planting. The larger the tree pit, the more water the tree’s roots will be able to access. This can help prevent sidewalk cracks because tree roots will receive all the water they need within the tree pit and will not need to search for water elsewhere. You can foster your tree’s growth and help to avoid sidewalk cracks by watering your tree 15-20 gallons all at one time, once per week from May through September!

Tree Planting

Upon initial delivery, trees are kept in a storage yard with their roots wrapped in burlap and wire cages until it’s time to be planted. Once the planting locations have been pre-excavated and weather conditions are right, trees are then transported via truck and lifted to the ground using the Claw or other heavy machinery. (Note: Trees should never be lifted by their truck or branches. The root ball is so heavy, it can put a strain on the trunk and weaken the structure of the tree if lifted this way. Trees are always lifted by the root ball.)

Until this tree is planted in the soil, it’s just like a fish out of water!

To prepare the tree for planting and allow for root growth, the wire cage and burlap must be removed.

The wire cage holds the soil and burlap in place as the tree is transported from the nursery.

 If left in place once the tree is planted, it will constrict root growth, prevent the tree from becoming well-established in the soil, and thus severely limit the tree’s access to water. This is why it’s extremely important that the majority of the wire is removed.

The burlap must be removed because it does not degrade in soil, especially if it is made of synthetic material or treated with chemicals to prevent degradation in the nursery.

Once the root ball is exposed, the tree is ready for its new home! Trees may be planted in an existing pit, as mentioned above, a new sidewalk pit, or a lawn pit. Lawn pits are ideal for trees because they offer much more space for the tree roots to grow and absorb water.

This tree stands alone in its own sidewalk pit.

These lucky trees get to grow together and establish their roots in this big lawn pit.

Where’s the soil? New York City soil has a bad reputation. Suffocated under concrete slabs for decades, our urban soil has been leached of nutrients. The brown stuff under the concrete, we now affectionately refer to as “dirt.” This nutrient-poor dirt is not suitable for tree growth, and so we require our contractors to replace this dirt with more fertile soil.

Look at that color difference! The rich, black soil will replace the washed-out brown soil around the tree’s roots.

These newly planted trees have yet to establish their roots in the soil, and can be easily knocked over by a careless driver. To stabilize the tree, wooden stakes are placed on either side, and arbor tie is secured around the trunk to keep the tree upright.

This beautiful new addition to a residential block in East New York will receive one more thing: a layer of mulch to lock in soil moisture, moderate soil temperature, and minimize weed growth throughout the summer.

This tree now needs someone to water and care for it! Pledge to care for this tree or another like it in your neighborhood by Adopting-a-Tree on our website! Stay tuned for more information on the 2-year guarantee commitment our contractors have to caring for the tree. But for now, check out 10 Steps to Planting for a Greener NYC for similar information on the planting process and the guarantee.

About the Author:  Hi, my name is Chelsea Clarke, and I am an AmeriCorps member working as the Queens MillionTreesNYC Stewardship Corps Outreach Coordinator at Queens Botanical Garden. I work to set-up Street Tree Care Workshops at the Garden and in Queens neighborhoods where MillionTreesNYC has planted new street trees. Along with the NYC Compost Project in Queens and the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation (NYCDPR), we teach these workshops to inform New York City residents (people like you) how to properly care for your new street trees to ensure that they grow tall and strong to provide you and your community with all the benefits that trees can! Not only do I offer these workshops, but I also work with the NYCDPR at the Central Forestry office to gain insight into the entire tree planting process. Stay tuned for more blog posts from me in the next few weeks about tree care and street tree planting processes, from tree procurement to stump removal.

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