A new crop of trees can spruce up the grounds of any school, beautifying the schoolyard and providing health benefits to students and staff. However, you can't just plant trees at your school without any planning or experience in place. Just take a look at these common mistakes schools make when planting new trees.

1. Failing to consider planting conditions

While it's fine to think about factors like safety and appearance when choosing new trees for your school grounds, don't make the mistake of failing to consider planting conditions too. All trees need different conditions to thrive, so planting the wrong trees for your schoolyard will be futile. You need to consider the structure and nutrients of the soil as well as its drainage capacity, how much sunlight and moisture your trees will be exposed to, and how much soil depth the roots have to grow in. Once you know your conditions, talk to a landscape tree supplier, and they'll give you suggestions on trees that work for your space.

2. Forgetting about the impact of students

While natural factors like sunlight and soil have a big impact on how well trees grow, there's another unique consideration schools need to make: the impact of students. Every weekday, your school grounds will be full of children running, playing and likely attempting to climb trees from side to side. As such, it's important to select trees that will stand up to additional wear and tear from rambunctious children.

3. Not considering maintenance

Planting trees is only half of the battle; they need consistent care to thrive too. Unfortunately, many schools forget about keeping up with tree maintenance. When determining which trees to plant, how many, and where they should be planted, it's important to keep in close contact with your groundskeepers. The school maintenance staff will need to be able to fit regular tree watering, weeding and pruning into their schedules, so don't choose trees that need a lot of care unless you're willing to bring in specialists on a regular basis.

4. Leaving students out of things

Children may not be able to get involved in planting new trees, but it's a mistake to leave them out of the process entirely. Your new school forest will thrive far better if students take care of the trees rather than harm them, so make sure you bring new topics about trees into the curriculum to get children excited about tree care. Trees can be incorporated into almost any subject, so ask the teachers to think outside the box. For example, you can bring tree photosynthesis into science, leaf prints and bark rubbings into art class and tree weathering into geography.

Landscape tree suppliers can advise you on suitable tree types and care needs. Contact a local supplier for more information.

Share