Reddit reviews The Sibley Guide to Trees (Sibley Guides)

I love reading this stuff too. I’m a very outdoorsy person. So, if you want a nice non portable book about trees, there’s the david allen Sisley guide to trees. For portable, there are a lot more. The Audubon book is good, it just hasn’t been updated in a longtime. The Peterson guide is more recent and is good also. I’ll try to think of the books we have. My mom has a lot and has ones from her parents too. One that’s good is the national wildlife federation book on wildflowers. A new book that cool is one called wildflowers of the Appalachian trail. On trees, I really like an old edition of the golden guide to trees that we have. The Audubon guide to eastern us trees is good. I think Peterson is better than Audubon though. There is also a forestry department book on trees of around here that I have from middle school. Don’t worry, I’ll provide links to these books.

https://www.amazon.com/Sibley-Guide-Trees-David-Allen/dp/037541519X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481660&sr=1-1&keywords=Sibley+trees

https://www.amazon.com/GOLDEN-GUIDE-Herbert-Alexander-Martin/dp/B000KIITZK/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481704&sr=1-3&keywords=Golden+guide+trees

https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Eastern-Trees-Including/dp/0395904552/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481730&sr=1-1&keywords=Peterson+trees

https://www.amazon.com/Audubon-Society-Field-Guide-American/dp/0394507606/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481747&sr=1-1&keywords=Audubon+trees

https://www.amazon.com/Wildflowers-Shenandoah-Valley-Ridge-Mountains/dp/0813908140/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481845&sr=1-3&keywords=Blue+ridge+wildflowers

https://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-American-Wildflowers/dp/0375402322/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481845&sr=1-10&keywords=Blue+ridge+wildflowers

https://www.amazon.com/National-Wildlife-Federation-Wildflowers-America/dp/1402741545/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481922&sr=1-2&keywords=national+wildlife+federation+field+guide

https://www.amazon.com/Peterson-Field-Guide-Wildflowers-North-central/dp/0395911729/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481968&sr=1-1&keywords=Peterson+wildflowers

https://www.amazon.com/Wildflowers-Appalachian-Trail-Leonard-Adkins/dp/1634040902/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524481991&sr=1-1&keywords=Wildflowers+of+the+Appalachian+trail

http://www.shopdgif.com/product.cfm?uid=2051408&context=&showInactive=N

I’m going to post again once I go look at our bookshelf. This was just off the top of my head. Oh and it’s not a field guide, but you should read a walk in the woods by bill bryson.

I highly recommend The Sibley Guide to Trees even though it doesn't fit your criteria. The hand-drawn illustrations are fantastic, and Sibley believes in a holistic approach to identification: he describes and illustrates bark, twigs, flowers/fruits, and even the silhouette of the species. And it is fairly extensive, with many non-native trees.

Sibley has no dichotomous key, unfortunately, and is organized by family. I usually flip through the book until I find something that matches. After flipping through enough times, you start to pick up on traits of each family and can use the quick index to skip around. This is definitely my favorite book out of the half dozen I have.

https://www.amazon.com/Sibley-Guide-Trees-David-Allen/dp/037541519X

This was my favorite ID book and it covers the most common species across the nation. Great illustrations.

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I second u/WhoolieAdelgid Watch your shit with spraying in the wind, even if you don't think it's toxic. The danger is rarely one exposure, with most chemicals it comes from working around it for a long period and getting incidental amounts of exposure every day.

When planting the most important thing, IMHO, is to do a quick root inspection around the root flare and keep an eye out for obvious girdling roots. At the sapling stage these are easy to correct and spot but can cause real problems later. And don't put gravel in the bottom, it doesn't tend to improve drainage in most soils. Even though you don't need to worry about a perched water table the same as potted plants, it can still happen depending on soil conditions.

I say all this having no idea how much you already know, I highly recommend browsing the Arborist Study Guide if you feel like there are gaps in your knowledge, this is a handy free one online.

https://www.scribd.com/document/359085293/215047427-Arborists-Certification-Study-Guide-pdf