Walter Reeves Helps Alpharetta Plant Trees for Arbor Day

Walter Reeves is the kind of person who can get even children to enjoy spending an hour inside on a sunny day. He kept his audience interested at the Alpharetta Arbor Day celebration, even getting children in the act to help answer questions.

With the temperature well into the 60s, Reeves gave a lesson at the Wills Park Recreation Center on how to plant a tree. His presentation included photos of how builders, homeowners and maybe even landscapers have done it wrong. A volcano of mulch, failing to break apart the dirt on a root ball and forgetting to dig six feet around the roots were common mistakes. The presentation showed the consequences, which included growth in unexpected directions at best, and often death of the tree.

Once his lessons were done and he answered a host of questions from the audience of 40-50 people, Reeves helped the Alpharetta Natural Resources Commission to plant a tree just outside the doors of the center on Wills Road.

Residents had a chance at winning door prizes including, of course, trees. Much shorter saplings were being given away as long as the resident signed a "pledge" to the tree that she would take care of it.

The Alpharetta Garden Club and other organizations used exhibit tents and park pavilions to host activities tied to Arbor Day.