How do we plan a tree planting program for our HOA's common areas?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 30, 2026

How an HOA board plans common-area tree planting: choosing sites and species, planting season, a contract planting spec, two years of watering and a budget.

Part of the HOA board handbook: vendors, projects and upkeep.

The short answer

A planting program is a list of spots that need a tree, a short list of species the association will plant, and a plan to keep each new tree alive for its first two years. Most failures happen in that second part. Boards spend the money on trees, the landscaper digs the holes too deep, nobody owns the watering, and by the next August a third of the new trees are brown sticks with a warranty nobody can find. Plant fewer trees and plant them well. Pick sites first, then species. Plant in your region's best season. Put the planting method in the contract, and budget water and labor for two summers, not just the nursery bill. This guide covers new planting only. Our guide on planning an HOA tree maintenance program covers surveys, pruning rotations and removal rules. Rules vary by state, by city ordinance and by your governing documents, so treat this as general education, not legal advice.

Pick the sites before the species

Start with a map, not a nursery catalog. Walk the common areas with your tree inventory and mark three kinds of spots: stumps from recent removals, gaps where shade or screening is gone, and bare areas the board wants to green up. For each spot, write down what is overhead, what is underground and what is next to it. Overhead lines limit tree height. Sidewalks, curbs, driveways and walls within a few feet limit root spread. Irrigation matters too: a spot on a working sprinkler zone is far cheaper to establish than one at the far end of a detention area where someone has to drag a hose. Before anyone digs, the contractor calls 811 so the utilities mark their lines. Every state has a dig notice law. Florida's, section 556.105 of the Florida Statutes, requires notice at least 2 full business days before excavation. Do not plant over a gas line or in a utility easement without checking what the plat allows. Number each site on the map. That number follows the tree into the inventory.

Build a short approved species list

Adopt a list of 8 to 12 species that suit your climate, soil and site sizes, and plant only from it. Ask your county extension office or city forester for a regional list rather than taking whatever the landscaper has on the truck. In Colorado, the Front Range Tree Recommendation List, compiled by CSU, the Colorado State Forest Service and city foresters, rates species by size and suitability and marks ash as prohibited for planting. Spread the planting across that list. The Colorado State Forest Service has said no single species should make up more than 10 percent of the planted trees in any urban or community setting, and the reason is the emerald ash borer: neighborhoods that planted rows of one species lost all of them to one pest. Match mature size to the site. A small tree belongs under a power line or in a narrow strip between walk and wall, and a large shade tree belongs in open turf with room to spread. Our guide on what to do when the power company wants to trim trees on HOA common area gives height limits for trees near lines.

Plant in the right season and buy good stock

Timing changes by region. In Texas, fall is the season. A Texas A&M AgriLife Extension horticulturist in Travis County calls autumn the best season for planting trees in Central Texas, because a fall tree has nearly half a year to grow roots before summer heat. Trees planted in late spring often struggle through their first summer. In Colorado, the Colorado State Forest Service says spring is the best time, when new trees are most easily established. In Florida, the University of Florida's planting specifications include watering schedules for planting in any season and say to drop the daily watering for winter plantings, which makes winter easier on a volunteer board. Smaller trees catch up faster than most boards expect. The UF specifications say trees with regular irrigation need about 3 months per inch of trunk diameter to establish in hardiness zones 9 to 11 and about 6 months per inch in zones 7 and 8. Florida has a voluntary grading system, Florida Grades and Standards for Nursery Plants, and UF extension advises buyers to learn it before visiting nurseries. Ask for Florida No. 1 or better. Anywhere else, have the contractor or an arborist reject trees with circling roots, a buried root flare, broken leaders or trunk wounds.

Write the planting method into the contract

Most landscape contracts say only 'install trees.' Spell it out, because the extension guidance is consistent and easy to check: - Hole at least twice as wide as the root ball (AgriLife) and up to three times as wide (Colorado State Forest Service), and no deeper than the root ball. - Root flare, where the trunk widens into roots, 1 to 2 inches above grade, because the soil settles after watering. - Backfill with the native soil from the hole. Both AgriLife and the forest service say not to add compost or other amendments to the backfill. - Stake only trees that cannot stand on their own, with soft straps low on the trunk, and remove stakes after one growing season. - Organic mulch about 3 to 4 inches deep, kept off the trunk and root flare. - A first watering at planting that soaks the whole root ball. Add a replacement warranty and get its length and conditions in writing. Find out what voids it, including who is responsible for watering, and settle that before you sign. Have a director or the arborist check a few holes on planting day. A buried flare is easy to see then and expensive to find two years later.

Water for two summers

Watering is the real cost of the program, and someone has to own it by name. The extension schedules start heavy and taper. AgriLife says water lightly every day the first week, every other day the second, every third day the third, then once a week if needed, checking soil moisture with a finger first. The Colorado State Forest Service gives a rule of 1 to 2 gallons per inch of trunk diameter, 3 to 4 days a week, adjusted for heat and wind. The UF specifications call for about 2 to 3 gallons per inch of trunk diameter at each watering, applied over the root ball, and for a tree under 2 inches: daily for 2 weeks, every other day for 2 months, then weekly until established. All three agree on two points. Water the root ball, not the lawn around it, and never water a root ball that is already soaked. Sprinkler zones set for turf rarely give a new tree the right amount. Choose one of three approaches: pay the landscaper to hand water on a set schedule, add drip or bubblers on the tree sites, or use slow-release watering bags that a volunteer refills. Write the choice in the contract or a volunteer roster, and keep a simple log by site number. Plan to water through the second summer, and in Colorado, through dry winter stretches.

Budget, motion and owner notice

Price each tree as installed cost plus two years of watering plus a replacement allowance for losses. Fund it as one operating line, and ask your reserve specialist whether replanting after large removals belongs in the reserve study. Owners often offer to pay for a tree. Route those offers through a written donation policy so the donated tree still comes from the approved list and the approved sites. Our guide on writing an HOA memorial bench and tree donation policy covers that. A sample motion: 'Move to plant 12 trees at sites 1 through 12 on the planting map dated September 8, from the approved species list, at a cost not to exceed $6,500 including planting, mulch and a one-year replacement warranty, and to contract hand watering through September of next year.' A notice the board can adapt: 'This fall the association will plant 12 new trees on common area, mostly where trees were removed last year. A map is attached. Crews will mark utilities before digging. Please do not move watering bags or mow over the mulch rings, and report a tree that looks wilted to [contact].'

A first-year timeline and the usual mistakes

Texas timeline: June, walk the sites and adopt the species list. July and August, get two or three bids on a written planting spec. September, board vote and owner notice. October and November, plant, then water on the AgriLife schedule. Colorado boards shift the same steps to a fall walk and a spring planting. Florida boards can plant in winter and lean on the UF schedule through the first warm season. The usual mistakes: buying the biggest trees the budget allows when smaller ones establish faster. Letting the crew plant too deep or pile mulch against the trunk. Leaving watering to the sprinklers or to 'whoever lives nearby.' Planting a dozen of the same species because the nursery had a deal. Putting a shade tree under a power line. And losing track of the warranty, so dead trees get replaced at full price. Each new tree goes into the inventory with its site number, species, size, planting date and warranty end date, and the board checks the list each spring and fall.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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