Palestine Master Gardeners Set a Fall Tree Sale. Here's How to Plant One Right.
Anderson County Master Gardeners will hold a tax-free fall tree sale at the Hot Pepper Festival Oct. 31. Texas A&M Forest Service advice on planting it so it lives.
The old saying is that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the second-best time is now. In Palestine the Anderson County Master Gardeners are making "now" easy.
The sale
The group's 2026 Fall Tree Sale will be held during the Hot Pepper Festival on Saturday, Oct. 31, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. It will be at the Federal Building, 101 E. Oak St., in downtown Palestine. The master gardeners say the sale is tax free and that pre-orders can be placed through the event page.
Proceeds pay for the group's projects. Those include the cabooses around town, yearly scholarships for graduating high school seniors, and a weekly farmers market booth with educational materials and activities for children.
You can find that booth well before the sale. The master gardeners' calendar lists their information booth at the Palestine Farmers Market on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., running through Dec. 5. Next Saturday, Oct. 24, is a good time to ask which trees will be for sale.
When to plant
The Texas A&M Forest Service says the best time to plant trees in Texas is November through early spring. A tree bought on Halloween is right on time.
How to plant it so it lives
The Forest Service's Texas Tree Planting Guide lists planting too deep, improper watering and girdling roots among the most common reasons new trees fail. Its advice, in short:
Pick a tree that grows well in your part of the state and has room above and below ground to spread.
Dig a square hole at least twice as wide as the root ball and no deeper than it. Fill it with water. If it takes more than 24 hours to drain, choose another spot.
Set the tree so the root collar, the area just above the roots, is level with the ground or slightly above. Lift it by the container or root ball, never the trunk.
Remove wire, twine, containers and as much burlap as you can.
Backfill with the same soil that came out of the hole, with no amendments. Settle it with water instead of packing it down.
Mulch two to three inches deep out to the drip line, keeping it off the trunk.
Water for at least the first two years. The guide calls for six to eight gallons per inch of trunk diameter per week, with a thorough soaking better than frequent sprinkles.
Don't fertilize during the first growing season.
More from the master gardeners
Gardeners who want to keep learning can mark Nov. 12. The calendar lists a library talk on salvias in Texas gardens by Texas Master Gardener Mary Anna Coe, at 1 p.m. in the Palestine City Hall council chambers, 504 N. Queen St.
Planting a tree is a small act of faith. Most of the shade it gives will fall on people who come after us. That is reason enough to plant one this fall.
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