We bought a new house in 2024 with a big (for DC) back lawn. When we moved in, having a carpet of grass that was mine felt luxurious. But I realized pretty quickly that grass on its own is boring. You know what isn’t boring?
Trees.
After a little poking around online, we found RiverSmart Trees program, which plants shade trees for DC residents for free. This week, a friendly tree-lover showed up at our door in a baseball cap holding a giant tape measure.
“Where are we looking to put some trees?” he asked.
We ended up picking three trees in total: a red maple out front and a river birch and catalpa for the back. The baseball cap guy measured out the space they’d need and planted little pink flags for each one. “You can move it a little bit if you need to–just not too close to the edge,” he told us.
It’s a daunting thing, this flag. When else in my life am I going to get to choose the location of a tree that might outlive me? As soon as he left I pulled up one of the flags and moved it just a few inches just so I could feel like I was the one who picked its location.
It’ll still be a few weeks before the tree company comes and does the planting in the spring. I can’t wait.
UPDATE: After writing this I saw this post on Popville about Casey Trees and NPS working together to plant 250 new trees this year. I’m glad that three new trees in our city this year will be ours.