Where to find young trees? Our garden is as bald as my dad's head (Austin: house, centers)

[vironica.ee]

We just bought a house and the yard is bald. It looks really "bald".

Can any body give us some ideas?

Where can we find young fruit trees or oak trees?

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by vironica.ee

We just bought a house and the yard is bald. It looks really "bald".

Can any body give us some ideas?

Where can we find young fruit trees or oak trees?

Ive never been there myself, but the natural gardener is supposed to be really good.

Otherwise we have bought oak trees at home depot that have been fine.

[la60336]

How tall are the trees that you are looking for?

[CptnRn]

I love trees and have planted lots of them here in Texas and am glad to see other people doing it here also. I can't understand having a house with almost no trees or shade around it here as hot as the summers are. I tend to like trees that provide good shade in summer and don't make much of a mess in the fall. I planted some really nice Red Oak trees at our first house, which provide wonderful shade now, but they are a big mess and a lot of work to clean up all the leaves they drop every fall.

In most instances I was planting trees for shade in Summer but also wanted the sun in Winter. I also wanted them established fairly quickly, so slow growing oak trees were not a good choice, plus the oak leaves are very sturdy and tough, don't biodegrade quickly and so they are a lot of trouble to clean up every fall.

The following trees are nice shade trees that do not make a big mess in the fall. The leaves are small or thin, not much work to clean up and biodegrade quickly.

Chinese Pistach - good shade trees, this is one of the species that the City was giving way a few years ago to encourage people to plant more trees in their yards. I have planted three now and am very happy with the results. Great shade trees that grow relatively quickly.

Texas Persimmon - a smaller, slow growing shade tree with very pretty smooth silver barked trunks. Slow growing but very attractive silver trunks.

Crepe Myrtles are another small tree that will grow tall enough to provide good shade around the house if you water and fertilize them, and they make very little mess in the fall.

City of Austin provides some good plant guides here. City of Austin - City of Austin - Grow Green

I have always bought my trees at any of the local plant stores. I'd probably go check the Natural Gardener if you are in Southwest Austin. http://www.naturalgardeneraustin.com/

[neddy]

I would not bother planting trees however till the drought is over.I know its hard to wait if you planted now you have a good chance of losing them.

[woodinvilleguy]

I'm still searching for a Pomegranate tree... Has anyone seen one

[neddy]

Looking for the odd ones you might try Hill Country Water Gardens up here on 183 in Leander. They are a great place to go to...

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by vironica.ee

We just bought a house and the yard is bald. It looks really "bald".

Can any body give us some ideas?

Where can we find young fruit trees or oak trees?

August is not a good time to plant trees.
Plant in the winter when their roots have time to grow and their leaves are dormant.

Fruit trees start showing up at garden centers around Feb or so, maybe even as early as January.

[Lil_ly]

We love Round Rock Gardens and Countrywide Nursery up here in Round Rock. The staff at Round Rock gardens are very helpful and very knowlegeable. Love that place. If you want a great tree that grows very fast and in any soil and takes sun and shade, I highly recommend the wax mrytle.

[mimimomx3]

Wait a month or two and head over to Natural Gardener in SW Austin. They'll sell you what you need. Another option is Ted's Trees Home in S Austin. They're wonderful. Trees are a GREAT investment in your property.