“The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.”
This Chinese proverb is one of my favourite quotes of all time as it reminds me that it’s never too late to do good. There’s something so simple and pure about the act of planting a tree, caring for it and watching it grow. Of course, not everyone has the time, funds or space for a sapling that will one day become a towering version of its former self. To be honest, I don’t have a lot of time or funds myself. But something I do have – courtesy of the land – is space.
So here’s how it works… For each one of you that subscribes to my blog during the month of June (2017), I will plant a tree out on our land in your honour. I will then name it after you and sing ceremonial songs to encourage its growth. Or at the very least I’ll water it.
Because I am a one-woman show (albeit with the constant love and support of many), it may take me awhile to fulfill my subscribe and I’ll plant a tree promise. But rest assured it will happen. Because when I say I’m going to do something – I do it.
UPDATE: To watch a video of my family and I planting the subscriber trees – plus instructions on how to plant saplings – visit my post How To Plant a Tree Sapling.
And now for a few facts about trees (from onetreeplanted.org):
Healthy forests help absorb greenhouse gasses and carbon emissions that are caused by human civilization and contribute to global climate change.
Every two seconds man destroys an area of forest the size of a football field.
Trees play an important role in the water cycle, grounding the water in their roots and releasing it into the atmosphere.
70 percent of the world’s plants and animals live in forests and are losing their habitats to deforestation. Loss of habitat can lead to species extinction.
Without tree roots to anchor the soil and with increased exposure to sun, the soil can dry out, leading to problems like increased flooding and inability to farm.
Deforestation comes in many forms, including fires, clear-cutting for agriculture, ranching and development, unsustainable logging for timber, and degradation due to climate change.
True, statements like the ones above can be overwhelming and depressing. But instead of letting it get to me I try and take the “what can I do to help” approach. And what I can do is plant a few trees. It’s not a lot. But it’s something.
Comment if I’ve goaded you into subscribing! I’d also like to hear your own personal plant a tree stories. Got a good one? Stay tuned for updates on the ceremonial tree planting!
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Posted on June 1, 2017
Former architectural technologist. Current treehugger.
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Show off 😉
Hey Larissa, first off, I miss dancing with you. Second, I am thrilled to see another friend sticking up for trees and the planet. My yard in Edmonton has many mature trees, and we love the wildlife they attract (squirrels, magpies, robins, sparrows, bees, chickadees living in a dead tree stump), and the shade they provide on hot summer days (we don’t need AC in our house thanks to all the foliage). I am looking forward to your musings.
I miss dancing with you too Phil! And thanks for the comment and subscribe 🙂 So nice that you live in a mature neighbourhood. Our neighbourhood is still relatively new so our trees have a ways to go, but we do have two crabapples that are doing nicely, two cedars that have survived several winters, one chokecherry and pretty soon a plum tree! As for on the land, well – there are far too many trees to count and I like it that way!
I’m already a subscriber to your blog and also a lover of trees. Its awesome that you are adding to the tree population on “the land.” Great idea….I have a tree planting story to share(which you already know about, but for the love of trees, I will continue) A few years ago, we planted a not so small sucker off shoot from a well established and much loved apple tree. The mother tree had given us decades of delicious apples which were lovingly made into apple pies, apple sauce and our all time family favorite yummy apple crisp. Because the family home, that the aforementioned tree was growing in had been sold, and the next generation of tree/apple crisp lovers couldn’t survive without us at least trying to carry on the tradition of apple crisping(is that a word…is now). My brother and I painstakingly removed the soil from the base of the sapling…. to our dismay it was fully attached, with a huge root, to the mother tree, which we weren’t expecting. What to do…So we figured well we’ve come this far. My brother chopped the connecting root, as close to the mother tree as he could and tied a rope to the base of the sapling and pulled the tree out of the ground with his Jeep.. It was laid in the back of my sons truck and he drove it out to our home in suburbia. My husband was extremely skeptical about the whole endeavour, but being the good man that he is, humoured me, grumbling all the while that it will never survive, and we planted it in the back yard by the pond. This is when we aptly named it “little tree” Several years have gone by now and “little tree” is not so little anymore. It has tripled in size. We nursed it through its first few winters, wrapping the trunk in burlap in the winter, putting mulch around the roots to protect them, using a gator bag to hold water for even watering during the summer, but it was well worth it. The first year its survival was sketchy but the second year we had 3 apples on it….people say a sucker tree wont produce fruit???? I picked the one that the birds didn’t steal and added it to a store bought bunch of apples to make into our favourite dessert, it was good but not the quality of apple crisp that we expect. Last year it had many blossoms on it, but the cold weather snap we had in the spring left it fruitless. But this year there are at least 2 dozen or more little apples on it….yay….”little tree”. This fall when the apples have grown to their full size, our family will be enjoying some apple crisps and next year who knows how many apples it will produce. So for the love of trees….here’s to their ability to survive and bring us all the benefits that come with that….and here’s to many years of delicious apple crisps.
Awww little tree! I should dedicate a post to it and its mother tree because they both have played very important roles in our family’s history. Oh and I’m very much looking forward to eating those apple crisps 🙂
Yes you should dedicate a blog to both trees…that would be awesome
To echo Phil, I miss dancing with you, too!
Also, what kind of trees are you planting? I’m just curious! We just moved into a mature neighbourhood with lots of big trees. So nice! I’ll also subscribe! ?
To echo my response to Phil’s comment – I miss dancing with you too! I will be planting white spruce saplings. So nice about your move! As I said in my reply to Phil, our current house does not have mature trees, but it sure has a lot of smaller ones. The newest addition to our tree family will be a blueberry tree to be planted tonight if it doesn’t pour! Thanks for the comment and the subscribe Lindsay 🙂