My Super Secret Method to Build My Homestead with Donated Trees

I do online live video streaming, and post videos on youtube.  There are several methods of taking donations from viewers and supporters, but I have developed my own unique way of gaining support.  I feel that it's the perfect way to build a homestead.  I had wanted to keep it a secret, so that this was a method that only I was doing.  Not only do I really enjoy this site, but I feel that this method can help those who are starting out their homestead.  

This method is all about planting new trees.  This is something that I do not need to do currently, because my entire property is forested.  I "may" cut down some sections of trees so that I can get some areas for well lit gardening, and these cut areas would be the perfect place for me to plant using this method that I am going to explain to you.

In live streaming, people donate money all of the time.  This is usually done through digital donations of cash through paypal.  I feel that this "super secret" method is better and more fun for the homestead.  People donate for several reasons.  Either they are entertained, informed, they want to support a noble cause, or they want to support a family that they enjoy.  I believe that this method of donation will pull on several of those heart strings together.  

This method hinges upon the arbor day membership.  Basically, instead of asking for ten dollars, you ask your viewer to sign up for their own arbor day membership.  This gets them a tree book, the arbor day newsletter, and discounts on purchasing trees.  As long as the promotion is going on, the donator also gets 10 free trees.  The trick here is that they can send those trees to any address, your homestead!  Some homesteads are better suited for this, which is determined simply by zip code.  My zip code has 9 different varieties of tree selections available to be sent.  

10 Autumn Classics - 2 Sugar Maples, 2 Red Maples, Scarlet Oak, Red Oak, Sweetgum, Silver Maple, White Flowering Dogwood, Washington Hawthorn
10 Tree Mix - Sugar Maple, Blue Spruce, White Pine, Dogwood, Birch, Silver Maple, Pin Oak, Redbud, Red Oak, Red Maple
10 White Pines
10 Eastern Redcedars
10 White Dogwoods
10 Oak Trees - 2 Bur Oaks, 2 Red Oaks, 2 Pin Oaks, 2 Scarlet Oaks, and 2 Willow Oaks
10 Wildbird Garden - 2 Arrowwood Virburnum, 1 Colorado Blue Spruce, 1 Bur Oak, 1 Gray Dogwood, 1 Northern Red Oak, 1 River Birch, 1 Sargent Crabapple, 1 Tuliptree, 1 Washington Hawthorn
10 Flowering Trees - 3 White Flowering Dogwoods, 3 American Redbuds, 2 Sargent Crabapples, 2 Washington Hawthorns

My favorites to create a homestead for my zip code would be the Autumn Classics, the 10 tree mix, the wildbird garden, and the flowering trees.  The autumn classics would give 5 maple trees for each pack!  The 10 tree mix gives me 3 maple trees, a birch tree, a spruce, and an oak.  These are great varieties.  Unfortunately, the trees provided vary greatly based on the zip code.  

This method isn't just for donations from my audience online, I also planned to utilize this for present requests.  For a birthday or Christmas, it would be much better to spend 10 bucks and send me a bunch of trees, than to buy me a gift card to somewhere that I don't really want to go.  Wouldn't you like to choose some trees for my homestead, and be able to watch them grow each and every year?  I would plant each year's donation in the same section, so that I can show the progress on my videos.  Look at these trees, they were all donated in 2018.  They have grown a bunch!  Here are the trees that were donated this year.  I can't wait to see how well they grow!

Yes, I know that planting trees for maple syrup harvesting.  It's something like 30 or 40 years.  Maybe my children will be able to tap these donated trees one day.  I don't have kids yet, but this is the cheapest and most effective way to start a tree farm.  Also, someone can donate trees multiple times, just by giving away gift memberships to people that they know.  For the 10 dollars, you're helping a homestead, and might get someone interested in trees.  At the very least, the Arbor Day Foundation is a good organization to support with your 10 dollars.  I'm not a tax attorney, but I would venture to guess that the 10 dollar donation is a tax deductible contribution!

I hope you all enjoyed this method that I have planned out.  I had previously wanted it to be something unique that I was doing for my channel, but I realize how selfish that is.  By the time that I can plant new trees, they might not even be giving away the free trees with membership.  I truly believe that someone can use this method and help start their vibrant homestead.  What do yall think?  Would you donate some trees to someone who needed it?  Do you think this is a neat method of helping?  Would you ask for trees for your own land, or would you send them to someone else?  

I am not currently looking for trees to plant, so leave a reply if your homestead needs trees.  Tell us about your land, about your plans, and what zip code you're in.  Maybe we can help you with a couple of donations.  Heck, 10 bucks isn't anything to most people.  

Amazing!
I was just thinking of joining multiple times to get the redbuds,whichever the only edible option for my area.
NowI might send these to other people a know, or my church, or who knows where!
Thank you for choosing to share this idea.

I believe that each person can only have a single membership. Also, you only get trees for the First Time that you join. There's nothing stopping you from joining friends and family members up, and hiding yourself the trees! It's many times cheaper than buying trees at a store, and you are giving a gift to friends. They would never know about the trees, unless you tell them.

I would likely tell people beforehand, and that I get trees and they get a membership. Also, arbor day sends bare root trees, and are supposed to be decent quality.

It feels a bit like cheating the system!

I've floated the idea locally for a tree library where a permie takes other people's tree stock and plants it on their land. Then at a later time, the people who donate tree stock can come and get other different types of young trees to plant out on their own acreage.

People (like me) donate tree sock because they don't currently have the space, or economic resources to plant an entire forest. So they buy what's needed and donate it.

The person receiving the tree stock cares for the tree, and maintains a tree nursery where seedlings, suckers, and cuttings are propagated. So they do work in exchange for having their land forested.

So for example I'll go out and spend $200 on blueberry plants. I'll donate them to the library where they get incorporated into a food forest.

Then in 5 years or so when I have land and are ready to establish my own food forest, I go to the library and place my order for 50 or so blueberry cuttings to be picked up the next spring. Maybe I'll pick up some gooseberry, mulberry, elderberry, and saskatoon seedlings while I'm there. I'll also drop off some pots and propagation materials to replace the ones I'm taking.

So my $200 investment in maybe 10 blueberry bushes (yes, they cost $20 each) from the commercial nursery provides me with a return on investment of 150 berry bushes over the span of 5 years. Meanwhile it allows a fellow permie to establish their own operation far faster than would otherwise be possible.

As soon as I floated the idea I got an instant volunteer to be the keeper of baby trees. Donors has been a slower process. I propagated a bunch of seed this spring with mixed results, but I'm hoping to donate some Siberian pine seedlings once they're big enough to survive out on their own. I am also collecting cold hardy cherry suckers and growing them out with a view to donating them to the library.

neat idea!

Reminds me of some other resources, and keep us posted as you come up with more innovative ideas!

--for fruit or nuts, some schools give away free seeds for experimental growing.  KSU had and may have pawpaws.

(You can also get free seeds from off trees, of course...for feed, or grafting onto wild rootstock, or maybe you just get lucky and something grows true to seed!)

--Sepp Holzer rescues throw-away trees from nurseries and shocks them back into health (in his book _Permaculture_).

--someone I know on food stamps bought plants (strawberries and blueberries) from Whole Foods.  The blueberries got very ill within a few weeks of transplant, but the strawberry has done well.  I think I would use the Sepp Holzer shock method for any plant bought from Whole Foods going forward...

Back to Arbor Day--maybe posting on Craigslist in the cities for people who want to give a charitable, feel-good gift but have no yard space would get more people to donate to Arbor Day.

One downside I would mention is that I got lots of junk mail after I got on their mailing list.  Not just Arbor Day but every environmental non-profit.  I find this mildly annoying, some people might be strongly offended.  There may be some way to "unsubscribe."

I have liked I found the Arbor Day trees to be decent--two of three survived Snowmagedon New England (four feet of snow in a week, which was unusually heavy for our area), a construction crew, and housemate relations (love you, team!).  The one I bought from a different company died (bought it to replace one of the ones the construction crew womped--and that one has actually come back the strongest!).  

I think maybe my super-secret method is coppice hte tree to the ground with a 3-story ladder after its third year, and it will miraculously rebound.