Plant a Tree · Upper Arlington, Ohio
The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.
A tree you put in the ground today is a fifty-year decision. Get the species and the spot right and it mostly takes care of itself. Get them wrong and you'll fight it — and lose — for a decade. So I start with the ground, not the nursery tag.
Read the site
Sun and shade through the day, drainage, overhead and underground lines, room for roots, and what's already growing nearby. The tree has to fit the place it'll stand for the rest of your life.
Test the soil
Lab testing when it's worth it. pH and texture decide more than most homeowners realize — the wrong soil quietly starves the right tree.
Match the species
Three recommendations matched to your property — native-first, chosen for the next generation, not just this spring's catalog.
Plant & train it
Set at the right depth — root flare at grade, never buried — mulched right, and given the early structural pruning that makes the difference between a strong tree and a problem at maturity.
Before the lawns
Native is the floor, not the ceiling. Before Upper Arlington was a suburb — before the streets, before the lawns — this was central Ohio's beech-maple forest, with oak and hickory on the high ground and sycamore and walnut down in the Scioto bottoms. That canopy stood here for centuries before any of us. When I recommend a tree, I'm thinking about what belonged in those woods — and what we can put back.
When to plant: fall is the best window in central Ohio — the roots establish in cool, damp soil while the top rests, and the tree wakes up in spring already at home. The consultations happen all year; the best plans are made a season ahead.
Text David — Planting Consultation →Not sure what's already in your yard? Identify any tree free with CanopyKeep — snap three photos, no account needed.