New Nursery to Help City Increase the Number of Trees Planted in a Season

The Department of Public Works is establishing a gravel bed nursery as a temporary holding place for bare root trees to be planted around the City. Having bare root trees readily available for planting allows the Forestry Department to extend the planting season beyond the few weeks in Spring and Fall it is currently constrained to.

In such a large city, there is an inevitable holding period between digging, purchasing the trees, and planting them. Since balled and burlap trees are less likely to survive with these long periods out of the ground, the city can only buy as many as crews can plant immediately.

By establishing an irrigated bed of gravel, bare root trees can be safely held for up to 3-6 months. Having this reserve of stored bare root trees allows for many more plantings throughout the year! The gravel bed nursery will be established in Fresh Pond Reservation over the next few weeks. In preparation for this, crews will be removing some shrubbery and invasive vines and filling the areas with a wood mulch blend.