Our Trees

Austin Energy cut down an old hackberry that was blocking access to a telephone pole on my back fence and gave me a Mexican Plum for my trouble (a nice five-gallon size, too). I planted it last fall, the time to plant trees, but without rain this spring and summer, it's struggling, and leaving the hose dripping at its base isn't doing the trick.

Trees are stressed in the parks, too, where the city's parks staff is grateful for all the help it can get doing maintenance work. If you'd like to volunteer, here are links:

Austin Heritage Tree Foundation
The Austin Parks Foundation
Friends of Deep Eddy
TreeFolks
Trail Foundation

A fellow librarian says her neighbors have poked holes in big plastic tubs, placed them at the bases of their trees, and filled them with water to get an economical continuous drip, and their trees are thriving. I'm going to try that, and I'm going to read some of the books on tree care that we have here at the library. Here's a list:

The Sibley Guide to Trees
The Urban Tree Book
Forests

Without our trees, and without cool spring water bubbling up from the aquifers, Austin is a bit too weird.