It’s That Time Again: How to Get a Free Tree for Your Yard

This year's fruity options from TreePhilly include apple, apricot and sweet cherry. Mmmmmm.

Are you, much like myself, trying to get into gardening this spring? Well, here, we have a great resource to help you get the wheels turning on your growth goals. TreePhilly is a program that offers young trees to Philadelphia residents to plant in their yards — for free! — in hopes of boosting the city’s tree count. As an added bonus: There are some serious health benefits to having more trees in your life.

TreePhilly offers a wide variety of  yard trees, ranging from two to ten feet in height at pick-up. This year’s free-tree roster features 14 different types of trees, including black gum, red oak, gray birch, ironwood, red buckeye, Robinson crabapple, Staghorn sumac, witchhazel, sourwood, apple, apricot and sweet cherry. Philly dwellers are able to choose two per year. And, to set you up, TreePhilly will send you home with a bag of mulch to get your planting started and keep your tree healthy and happy. Oh, and if you haven’t quite mastered the green thumb thing, not to worry: There will be planting and care demonstrations at all pick-up events. You’ll be a pro in no time.

All you have to do to get your free tree baby is pre-register here and show up at one of the four scheduled tree pick-up events in early April. Registration ends on March 27th, but know: two pick-up events have already reached capacity so be sure to sign up sooner rather than later.

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