Make West Seattle greener with ‘free’ trees! City has conifers, if you have places to plant them

| Environment | Gardening | West Seattle news

Once again this year, the city has trees in search of homes – maybe even your neighborhood. From Katie Gibbons:

Could your yard use a beautiful new tree? You’re in luck! Through the City of Seattle’s Trees for Neighborhoods project, Seattle residents can apply for up to 4 free trees for their yard or planting strip. Participants receive free trees, water bags, mulch, and planting and care instruction.

While many of this year’s small ornamentals have sold out, you can still apply for 1 of 5 gorgeous conifers that will add beauty and grace to your yard. If you have the space, consider planting one of three native conifers we’re offering this year: the grand fir, the western hemlock, or the western red cedar. For small, narrow spaces, plant the graceful Serbian spruce. Consider the deciduous bald cypress and enjoy its changing color and soft beautiful foliage. Bald cypresses are excellent urban trees because of their adaptability, even winning the Society of Municipal Arborists’ Tree of the Year award!

To learn more about this year’s species, space requirement, and to apply, go here.

JanS August 25, 2015 (3:19 pm)

when I was a homeowner, I had apple trees, plum, cherry, and 2 big grand firs in my back yard…present owners cut everyone of them down…not a tree in sight :( And a western hemlock in the front yard, grown from a seedling…and they got rid of that, too….sad

John August 26, 2015 (8:40 am)

Another point derived from JanS’ sad example.
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The few of us with fruit trees and mature firs on our lots realize the huge commitment this type of planting requires.
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A commitment to space, as these trees take up the entire back yard of a SF parcel.
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A commitment to gardening, pruning and hiring expensive arborists to maintain the health of trees.
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A commitment to large size clean green street service.
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A commitment to having your roof and gutters cleaned every month for half the year.
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A commitment to never having solar panels on your roof.
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And a commitment to letting the ‘trees become the view’, even when accustomed to the glorious mountain/Sound view your home and its generations of occupants have enjoyed for the last century.
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I know this because these are the commitments I face.

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