(upbeat music) >>So how do you get a big tree?

Well, you can start by collecting seeds and nuts.

So here are a couple that you might find around your yard.

And the acorn though, as you can see, has this tiny little hole.

A worm has already gotten in here and eaten the nut.

So this is not gonna sprout to give you an oak tree later.

So if you're not able in fall to collect nuts, what might you do to get your big tree?

Well, you might think about riding down the road to the local nursery and buying a tree.

And what you're going to find, beautiful trees, great looking trunks, awesome looking branches and leaves.

And what may be a little bit off in the nursery is this ratio of three part root to one part stem.

And if you go to the Virginia Department of Forestry, you can find lots of native trees, and they grow over 5 million trees in Augusta County at their Crimora site for Virginians.

And they have a host of native trees that you can find.

I have two species with me today.

I have the northern red oak, which is a tree of our forest all across the state of Virginia, and then I also have with me sycamores.

These might be trees that you have seen on your stream or creek or riverside that has the beautiful white bark.

Really beautiful tree that will tolerate having its feet wet, so it will grow in more marshy, wet spots.

And both of these are available through the Department of Forestry.

And what they are doing is they are gonna grow the tree, and when they're pulling them out for you, you're gonna get this really nice root mass and a much smaller trunk area.

That's so that the tree is going to establish, because it's this root system that's going to get the nutrients and the water out of the soil for this upper canopy.

So what you wanna do is if you are planting this in your yard, if you're putting it in a spot with turf grass, make sure you cut a very large circle, about three feet in diameter.

You're gonna want the tree right in the middle.

You're gonna wanna loosen the soil up and so that you can get these roots all spread out.

You're gonna wanna dig the hole a little bit deeper, several inches at least, deeper than the roots, and then of course, that nice three foot circle.

You're gonna put them into that hole up to this point where the stem meets the root.

And you don't have to amend the soil at all.

These are native trees to Virginia.

So whatever we've got, red clay, nice loamy soil, they'll take it, they're adapted, so don't try to amend your soil.

You just wanna keep the turf grass away, because turf grass, your lawn, and trees are competitors for all kinds of things, especially water.

Once you've got the tree in and up, you may wanna stake it just to kinda keep it straight, and then water it really thoroughly, mulch it, you could use wood chips or other mulch that you have on hand, and just keep the grass away as the tree gets established.

And over the years, you will see that you have a beautiful specimen coming up, and so you can enjoy your tree for years to come.

Happy gardening.