Now, 134 years later Arbor Day is observed in all 50 states and in many other countries. Korea has a Tree-Loving Week. India celebrates a national Festival of Tree Planting. In Israel, it is called the New Year’s Day of the Trees and Iceland has a Student’s Afforestation Day.
Our national Arbor Day is the last Friday in April, but many states have chosen another date to fit their differing climatic conditions.
For example: Hawaii leads by planting trees in November followed by North Carolina in December and Louisiana and Florida in January. Alaska chose the latest date to observe Arbor Day — the third Monday in May.
But even May 15 isn’t late enough this year for most places in Alaska, including the Kenai Peninsula. Actually the third Monday of May is too early for all of Alaska, except the Southeast Panhandle.
Why plant a tree anyway?
We plant trees because they clean the air, produce oxygen, moderate the temperature and reduce the erosion of our precious topsoil.
Also, trees can cut heating and cooling costs, and provide habitat for wildlife. How does one measure how much aesthetic value trees add to a town or crowded city or the landscape in general?
What trees are cold hardy enough to survive here? Spruce trees including the Sitka, white spruce and their hybrid, the Lutz spruce, which is common here, are easy-to-grow coni-fers.
The larch or tamarack, western hemlock, lodge pole pine and bristlecone pine have also proven to be successful conifers in this area. Unlike the other conifers, tamarack or larch loses its needles in winter.
Deciduous trees you might want to consider are paper birch, quaking aspen, black cottonwood, balsam poplar, European mountain ash and chokecherry. Except for the spruce, all of these trees will have to be protected from browsing moose when the trees are young.
In recent years we’ve learned that some bristlecone pine trees have outlived the giant sequoias. One of these long-lived pine trees is thriving within the city limits of Homer.
Fruit trees have been grown here successfully for many years. There is one fruit-bearing cherry tree in the city of Homer that was probably planted before 1940.
If you choose crabapples, plums, cherries, or eating apples and decide to join the Lower Peninsula Fruit Growers Association, contact John Bittner at 235-7264. Some of us living at higher elevations have been enjoying fruit from trees in our greenhouses.
Arborists in the south 48 say that most nonprofessionals plant their trees too deep. Planting trees too deep can also be a problem in Alaska, for our trees have shallow roots — a fact that is quite obvious when examining the root system of an overturned tree.
Too much soil on top of the root system deprives the roots of oxygen. Early Alaska landscapers made the mistake of thinking that deeper is better and killed trees.
Plant trees so that the place where roots begin to spread out from the trunk is at grade level. Dig a hole for the tree that is at least twice the width of the tree’s root ball. Water until the soil is saturated, but don’t add fertilizer during the first year.
If you want to plant something special this spring whether it’s a tree, shrub, native plant or perennial, wonderful opportunites exist for you to acquire those plants.
Don’t forget the diverse offerings at our local nurseries and garden centers. Their staffs can give you excellent advice. In so many ways it benefits both you and our community to shop locally.
There are several trained and experienced Master Gardeners in this area who will share practical gardening ideas. Another good source of local gardening advice is the Homer Garden Club which meets on the fourth Sunday at city hall.
Watch for announcements about plant sales by nonprofit groups.
If you don’t have a place to garden and are looking for a small plot, call Hope Finklestein at 235-7164 about a space in the community garden.
Every time I see a beautiful tree, my memory still sings the lyrics of Joyce Kilmer’s beautiful poem:
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray.
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.
Daisy Lee Bitter is a Master Gardener with 52 years of gardening experience in Alaska.
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