Mesa Opens Tree-Planting Season With Free Shade Trees and Hands-On Workshops

The summer that makes East Valley residents wish for shade is also the reason fall is the right time to plant it. With nights finally cooling, the City of Mesa has opened its 2026–27 tree-planting season, and the centerpiece is a simple offer: come learn how to plant a shade tree properly, and you can take two of them home for free.

In a September 30 announcement, the city laid out a lineup of workshops, a volunteer planting day, and a rainwater class, all tied to its Trees Are Cool initiative. The aim is to help residents and businesses plant, care for, and record the shade trees they put in the ground, so neighborhoods get cooler and more comfortable over time.

“Trees provide shade, help cool our neighborhoods and contribute to a healthier, more resilient community,” said Scott Bouchie, director of Mesa’s Environmental and Sustainability Department. “By making tree planting more accessible, we’re giving residents and businesses more opportunities to add shade where people live, work and spend time outdoors.”

Two free trees, one Saturday morning

The first Mesa Neighborhood Shade Tree Workshop and Tree Distribution is Saturday, October 24, at the southwest field of Pioneer Park, 526 E. Main St. Parking is at the Park-and-Ride lot off N. Lesueur. Registration is required, and attendees pick either a 9 a.m. or an 11 a.m. start.

The format is hands-on rather than a lecture. People are split into groups and rotate through five stations, each covering a different part of tree care: choosing the right tree for the right place, planting it correctly, watering it through establishment, and caring for it as it grows. The city says the rotation takes about 90 minutes, not counting the time spent picking out and loading trees.

A second workshop is set for November 7 at Red Mountain Park, 7745 E. Brown Road. The city’s program page says registration details for that date will be posted later.

The program is run for Mesa by Trees Matter, a Phoenix-based environmental education nonprofit whose stated mission is “To Inspire and Promote an Increased Tree Canopy Throughout the Valley.” Through its Mesa partnership, Trees Matter says it distributes almost 200 trees and teaches more than 100 Mesa residents about tree care each year. Questions go to the group at 480-935-9988 or MesaShadeTrees@Treesmatter.org.

Who qualifies

The rules are short but worth reading before you register. You need to own the home or have the legal right to plant on the property, and renters need their landlord’s consent. You must live inside Mesa’s incorporated boundaries, which leaves out county islands. Businesses are not eligible for this program.

You also have to attend the workshop and take your trees home that same day, and you are responsible for transporting, planting, and caring for them. The city asks participants to call 811 within two weeks of the event so underground utilities can be marked before anyone digs, and to make sure the spot they choose will not put a mature tree into overhead power or communication lines.

Six desert-adapted trees to choose from

Trees come in 5-gallon containers and stand roughly 3 to 5 feet tall, small enough to fit in most cars. The city is offering six desert-adapted varieties, each picked to handle low rainfall and hot summers, though all of them will need extra water while they settle in.

Blue palo verde, Arizona’s state tree, is a native that reaches about 30 feet tall and wide, with a blue-green trunk, small thorns, and a spring flush of bright yellow flowers that draws birds and other wildlife. Desert willow is smaller, about 25 feet by 25 feet, thornless and deciduous, with fragrant pink trumpet flowers from late spring through summer that hummingbirds and pollinators love.

Red Push pistache is the fall-color pick: a thornless, deciduous tree with a dense summer canopy, new growth in red tones, and yellow and red color in fall and winter. It reaches about 35 feet tall and wide, so the city advises giving it plenty of room. Thornless South American mesquite, also called Chilean mesquite, is a hybrid with a lush, dark green canopy and cream-yellow catkin flowers in spring, maturing around 30 feet tall and wide.

Velvet mesquite has ferny gray-green leaves, pale yellow catkins, and bean pods that feed wildlife and can be ground into flour. It does carry small to medium thorns. Willow acacia rounds out the list as the evergreen, upright option, growing about 40 feet tall but only around 20 feet wide, with cream-colored puffball flowers that are heaviest in spring.

Every one of these trees drops something, whether flowers, pods, or leaves, depending on the season. That is part of the trade for shade, and it is worth picturing before you choose a spot next to a pool or a light-colored patio.

More ways to get your hands dirty

The tree giveaway is not the only event on Mesa’s fall calendar. On November 21 at 10 a.m., Dobson Library’s THINKspot, 2425 S. Dobson Road, hosts Rainwater Harvesting 101, a class on collecting rain as a free water source for trees and landscape plants. For anyone bringing home a new tree that will need help through its first few years, that timing lines up nicely.

Then on December 5 at 7:30 a.m., volunteers are invited to Chelsea Park, 145 S. 40th St., for a Mesa Tree Steward Community Tree Planting. The goal is to put about 50 trees into the park and surrounding neighborhood, with the Arizona Sustainability Alliance, American Forests, and Mesa Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities as partners. Sign-up details are on the city’s Trees Are Cool page.

Residents who plant on their own can still be counted. Mesa keeps an online Trees Are Cool map where you can record the date and location of a tree you planted, and it shows up alongside trees logged by neighbors and businesses. Trees Matter describes the initiative as challenging Mesa residents and businesses to grow the city’s tree canopy to 15 percent by 2050.

If you live outside Mesa

Gardeners in Gilbert, Queen Creek, San Tan Valley, and the rest of the Valley cannot use the Mesa giveaway, but there is a parallel route for many households. Trees Matter also runs the SRP Shade Tree Program for Salt River Project electric customers. Participants can get up to two free desert-adapted shade trees after attending a webinar on planting and care, and fall pickups happen between October and November. Across that program, Trees Matter says it hands out more than 5,000 trees and teaches more than 4,000 Valley residents each year.

Mesa’s program page points residents who miss both workshop dates toward the SRP option too, as long as SRP is their electric provider. Check Trees Matter’s events calendar for current dates.

Getting a new tree through its first year

A free tree only pays off if it survives its first summer, and that is where the workshop stations earn their keep. Mesa’s own seasonal watering guidance draws a clear line between established trees, which have been in the ground about two years, and new ones. In October, an established desert-adapted tree may only need a deep soak about once every 24 days, while a freshly planted 5-gallon tree needs more frequent water while its roots move out into native soil.

Fall planting gives the tree a head start on that process. The soil is still warm enough to push root growth, the air is cool enough that the tree is not losing water as fast as it would in June, and the roots get months to spread before heat returns. For hobby gardeners, it is also a good excuse to look at the whole yard: a shade tree placed on the west side of a garden bed or patio can make next summer’s afternoon chores a lot more bearable.

Registration for the October 24 workshop is open on the City of Mesa’s Neighborhood Shade Tree Program page. Pick your start time, call 811 after you sign up, and decide where those two trees will go before Saturday comes. If all goes well, the trees you carry home in a car this fall will be shading a sidewalk, a backyard, or a vegetable bed for decades.