Tree Care Apps & Tools

Tree Planting

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Tree Care Apps & Tools Tree Planting
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Tree Care Tool

Right Tree, Right Place Planting Advisor

Match your garden — its space, wind and soil — to species that will actually thrive here, with mature sizes and how far to keep them from the house.

3 screens, about a minute Nothing you type leaves this page How it works

Rates and bands last reviewed October 2026 · coastal San Luis Obispo County market rates

Terms of use, and the limits of these tools — please read before you rely on a figure

In short: these are estimates and general information, not quotes, appraisals or advice. Prices here can be higher or lower than Cambria Pines Tree Service Inc. or anyone else would charge, and ticking the box on the first screen means you accept the terms. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.

Read all 13 terms in full →

Tick the box above to begin — 8 screens, about a minute, one question at a time.

Step 1 of 8

What are you planting it for

How to answer this

Most tree problems are planting problems: the right tree in a space that cannot take it. Start with the job you want done, and the width you can genuinely give away.

What are you planting it for?

Before you answer
  • A screen wants width, a windbreak wants width and toughness, shade wants height and spread, and habitat wants a native.
  • Measure to the nearest structure, boundary or driveway rather than to the edge of the lawn you had in mind.
  • The mature canopy is usually wider than the tree you buy, and that is the number that matters at planting time.

Step 2 of 8

How wide is the space you can give it

How to answer this

Measure to the nearest structure, boundary or driveway.

ft Measure to the nearest structure, boundary or driveway.

Step 3 of 8

How much sun

How to answer this

These three answers choose your species for you if you let them. On this coast the wind and the salt are the two that are not negotiable.

How much sun?

Before you answer
  • Water that stands after rain means a species that tolerates wet feet, and that is a short list on this coast.
  • Very dry sandy ground suits the drought-adapted natives and will kill a redwood with no summer water.
  • Salt and onshore wind pick you Monterey cypress or olive; coast redwood takes neither of them well.

Step 4 of 8

How does the ground drain

How to answer this

These three answers choose your species for you if you let them. On this coast the wind and the salt are the two that are not negotiable.

How does the ground drain?

Step 5 of 8

How exposed is it

How to answer this

These three answers choose your species for you if you let them. On this coast the wind and the salt are the two that are not negotiable.

How exposed is it?

Step 6 of 8

Are there overhead power lines

How to answer this

Power lines, a leach field and the question of natives are the three constraints that remove otherwise perfect trees from the list.

Are there overhead power lines?

Before you answer
  • Nothing tall goes directly under a power line, and the pruning that keeps it clear is the sort that ruins the shape.
  • Roots follow water, which makes a leach field the most reliable water source on the property — 20 ft is the working minimum.
  • A native tree earns its place on habitat and drought, and on a fire-conscious parcel a hardwood beats a resinous pine.

Step 7 of 8

Is there a septic field or leach line nearby

How to answer this

Power lines, a leach field and the question of natives are the three constraints that remove otherwise perfect trees from the list.

Is there a septic field or leach line nearby?

Step 8 of 8

Do you prefer a native tree

How to answer this

Power lines, a leach field and the question of natives are the three constraints that remove otherwise perfect trees from the list.

Do you prefer a native tree?

Your answer

What to plant

How to read this

The three best matches for the spot you described, with the mature size and the distance each one needs from the house, the line and the leach field.

Go deeper

How to plant it so it lives, and what it becomes

The first two summers

A tree dies in its first two summers far more often than at any other time, and almost always for one of the reasons below. None of them is hard to get right.

Plant in the cool season
Late autumn through early spring, while the ground is cool and the rain does the watering. A tree planted in high summer spends its first season surviving rather than growing, and much of it does not.
Choose stock that establishes
A fifteen-gallon tree with a good root system generally settles and outgrows a large boxed tree that spent its life in a nursery row. Big stock is bought for day-one appearance, and often at the cost of the first three years.
Set it at the root flare
The trunk must never be buried. The first major root should sit at the finished grade, and planting even a few inches too deep is the commonest way a good tree is killed slowly.
Stake only if it needs it
Staking is for a tree that cannot stand on its own, for no longer than two growing seasons, and with ties that are checked. Left on longer, it grows a trunk that cannot hold itself up.
Keep mulch off the trunk
A ring of mulch out to the drip line at two to three inches deep, kept clear of the trunk. A mulch volcano holds water against the bark and invites rot and rodents.
Water by the calendar
Deep, slow watering at the drip line — roughly five to ten gallons a week for a newly planted garden tree through the first summer, tapering off in the second, and almost none in the third. Coastal fog is not water.

What it will cost, and what it becomes

Two honest numbers: what it takes to plant a tree well, and what a young tree is worth to a property while it is young.

The all-in cost of planting one
Supply, delivery, digging, planting and staking sit in the estimator's planting band. Add the first year's water and a little mulch, and a tree planted well is one of the few improvements on a property that gets better every year for nothing.
What a sapling is worth today
Very little, in appraisal terms — the trunk cross-section decides it, and a young tree has almost none. Anyone buying a tree as an investment in this year's value has misunderstood the asset.
What it becomes
The contribution arrives with size, thirty and forty years out, and it cannot be bought at the sapling price. That is the whole argument for planting the right species in the right place rather than the fastest effect.
What it saves instead
Shade on a west wall, a screen between a house and a road, a windbreak on a coastal lot and habitat that keeps birds in a garden are all use value long before they are market value — and they are why the distances in the table above are worked out so carefully.
What moved this
  • The first name is the best match and not the only good one; the second and third often suit a slightly different spot on the same lot.
  • Plant from late autumn to early spring, while the ground is cool and the rain does the watering.
  • Keep a small tree 10 ft from a structure, a large one 20 ft or more, 15 ft from a power line and 20 ft from a septic field.

About Tree Planting

Most tree problems are planting problems. A redwood 12 ft from a septic field, a blue gum over a car, a pepper tree beside a drain — every one of those was the wrong tree in the wrong place, and none of them is the tree's fault. Getting it right starts with the space you actually have, not the tree you like.

This advisor takes your goal, the width you can give it, the wind and sun the site offers and how the ground drains, then suggests species that suit those conditions on the Cambria coast. The distances it quotes are the conservative ones: 10 ft minimum from a structure for a small tree, 20 ft or more for a large one, 15 ft from a power line and 20 ft from a septic field.

Two local notes. Coastal wind and salt will choose your species for you if you do not — Monterey cypress and olive take both, redwood takes neither well. And on a fire-conscious parcel, a hardwood like a coast live oak earns its place over a resinous pine.

What trees grow best on the Cambria coast?

Monterey cypress and fruiting olive take salt and wind best; incense cedar is the best narrow tree for a small lot; coast live oak is the best native for habitat and is very drought tolerant. Coast redwood grows but needs summer water and space.

Which trees are most fire resistant?

Broadleaf evergreens with low resin and little dead material — coast live oak, toyon and other natives — are generally the most resistant. Resinous species like pines and eucalyptus are the least, and should be kept away from the structure.

How far should a tree be from my septic system?

At least 20 ft, and further for a fast-growing or thirsty species. Roots follow water, and a leach field is the most reliable water source on the property.

When is the best time to plant a tree here?

Late autumn through early spring, while the ground is cool and rain does the watering. Planting in high summer means the tree spends its first season surviving instead of growing.

Why not just plant a redwood? It grows here.

It grows, and it wants summer water and about 25 ft of clearance from any structure to do it well, which most Cambria lots cannot give it. Coastal salt and wind do not suit it either. Monterey cypress and olive take both, and incense cedar is the best narrow tree for a small lot.

How big will the tree actually get?

The mature size is in the result, and it is usually wider than the tree you buy. A 15-gallon cypress reaches 25 ft across and a coast live oak 45 ft. Plan for the width at twenty years rather than at planting, and measure that against your boundary and the house before you dig.