The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. –Chinese Proverb

This proverb about the best time to plant a tree gets quoted all the time, and that’s because everyone knows how important trees are. This is even more true for a homestead. Nothing will provide more food and resources for less care and input than a healthy tree once it’s established and mature on your homestead.

When I was a kid, I would spend many weekends at my grandparents’ house, and out behind their barn along the fence were a whole row (probably about 20) Mulberry Trees. Grandma would send me back there to pick a bucket full for a pie. I remember it would take me a long time to fill the bucket because I would eat two of every three I would pick. Grandma would just laugh when she saw me coming into the house and say, “you’re gonna have a bellyache,” I guess the stains on my face gave it away.

All my life mulberries have been one of my favorites, imagine my surprise when I found out most people despise this wonderful tree, they consider it invasive and messy. I will admit I understand why; after all, my vehicles have been a victim of the birds after they have had a healthy meal of mulberries too. I even had a hard time getting rid of a couple of trees that were growing in an inconvenient place beside my garage, I would cut them off level at the ground, and they just kept coming back, but this is also one of the things that make it such a great tree.

I also grew up eating fresh fruit from plum, apple, pear, and peach trees growing on or near our property and developed a great appreciation for these trees. Experience taught me of the abundance provided by nature through fruit and nut trees but I had no idea at the time just how little I knew and how much I underestimated the actual provision that could come from trees on a homestead property.

Flash forward about four decades, and my homestead is filled with trees of all kinds. Fruit and nut trees provide food for my family; fodder trees supply food for the livestock; trees grown to coppice provide wood for heat, crafts, mulch and building projects; and all of them provide soil and plant companion benefits as well as habitat for wildlife.

A homestead without trees is like a sky without stars – incomplete. Trees serve as the green backbone of any thriving homestead, playing an indispensable role in a multitude of ways. They are not just an element of the landscape; they are an integral part of the homestead ecosystem, contributing to its sustainability, functionality, and beauty.

All of this is to say trees can supply an abundance of needs for the homestead and should be grown for a variety of reasons which many will be covered in this course.