Summer is growing season at Casey Tree Farm, which means watering and nurturing over 50,000 trees of over 60 diverse species – many of which will be harvested and find new homes in DC this fall.
In partnership with the DC Department of Transportation (DDOT), Casey Tree Farm is the official DC State Nursery, where we grow thousands of trees every year for planting in parks, along city streets, and at schools, homes, and businesses across the District.
But you won’t find trees in every row. In some, you’ll see sunflowers and daikon radish, as well as lush, green lines of buckwheat and sorghum that are just getting started.
Sunflowers send roots deep into the ground and add organic matter back into the soil, while their blooms draw in pollinators and make for lovely bouquets. Daikon radish goes even deeper, breaking up compacted or clay-heavy soil and giving one of our team members the chance to turn the harvest into kimchi.
It’s all part of our effort at Casey Tree Farm to not just grow healthy, resilient trees for our communities, but to steward the land we farm on for generations to come.
For centuries, farmers have used cover crops to slow erosion, rebuild soil between growing seasons, and crowd out invasive weeds. At the Casey Tree Farm, we’re doing all of that while using them to feed and shelter wildlife, too.
This summer, our resting rows are teeming with life, from native bumblebees to the zebra swallowtail butterfly (which is also pictured on our City of Trees t-shirt). These plants also draw in beneficial insects like ladybugs and lacewings, which help protect our trees by feeding on harmful pests like aphids and scale.
Our cover crop mixes are made up of over a dozen different species, including legumes, grasses, and deep-rooted plants that each play a different role. Legumes pull nitrogen from the air and add it back into the soil. Grasses improve water flow and help hold the soil together. Deep-rooted plants break up compaction and draw up nutrients from lower down. A healthy ecosystem thrives on diversity, and so does healthy soil.
We aren’t just growing trees at the Farm. We’re building healthy soil, supporting a whole ecosystem, and stewarding the land those future DC trees get their start on.
