The weather has been warming up and spring is getting closer. Planting a tree improperly, especially burying the root flare too dee or planting in a hole that’s too small, can lead to the tree’s death or stunted growth. Erica Jo Shaffer shared a breakdown of the common pitfalls to avoid when planting a tree.

Asia: Okay, so let's start at the very beginning. What are some of the common mistakes that people make when it comes to choosing a tree?

Erica Jo: Well, I think the first thing you need to do is look at where you're going to plant the tree before you even get in your car and drive to a garden center, because you might wander around. I remember people would come in and say, I want a dogwood, because they know that word, but then they're gonna plant it in full screaming sun and it's not gonna do well. So looking around your property and deciding where you're gonna plant a tree, and not only just looking there, look up. How many trees get like mauled because somebody planted them under a power line? So deciding where you wanna plant the tree and how big the tree should get are your first two things you need to do.?

Asia: How do you know that in advance? Because do you know typically how big a tree is going to grow?

Erica Jo:  See that's the thing you got to work backwards okay I don't know what tree you're gonna get yet but say that you know that the tree is underneath the power line and it's in hot screaming Sun and you want to make sure that you then don't choose a tree that gets over 20 feet tall Wow so then you go to the garden center and be like look this is what I need I need a smaller growing tree that doesn't get over 20 feet tall it's screaming hot Sun I'm I'm probably gonna forget to water it. What do you got? and then have somebody show you what your choices are and then move from there.

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