Planting Trees for Future Generations

City, country and suburban dwellers benefit from the trees surrounding them on the street, in parks and back yards. They provide cover for the birds we enjoy hearing, give us shade on a hot day, and remind us of the wonders of nature's annual regeneration in spring.

Today's Writer's Almanac includes a poem, Planting a Sequoia, from The Gods of Winter by Dana Gioia. The author describes working in the orchard to plant a tree in the wind and rain.

In Sicily, their father planted trees to commemorate life's bookends: Births and Deaths. In this poem, they wrapped a lock of hair and a part of an infant's birth cord into the planting to memorialize a son for immortality.

This morning's Internet research has been all about trees for a Thursday column on the topic.

Muskogee is one of many recipients of the generosity of Apache Oil Foundation's'effort to plant a million trees in storm devasted areas, especially Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.

Thursday's column will be a list of the trees that will be available this coming Saturday and thumbnails of information about each one.

Some of the most informative links I found on the topic of trees
treeworld.org
treesaregood.com
arborday.org
usna.usda.gov
treegrowersdiary.com

Doing a little research before buying a tree can lead to healthier specimens in your yard and help avoid huge disappointments. Some common examples - 70-foot tall trees planted under power lines will be topped by the utility company. Trees that grow to 40-feet wide in a small back yard will have to be removed. Small trees planted in a huge open space will not thrive. Deciduous trees and flowering trees make messes in pools and hot tubs. The list goes on.

Hubby and I have wasted plenty of money and sweat equity learning the hard way to read and do the research first, buy later.

But, by all means, plant a tree a year, in your yard, at a school, at church, wherever. Future generations are depending on our wisdom and our concern for their ability to see 30-year old trees.

Comments

Anonymous said…
We plant trees for our children and our children's children. I didn't know Oklahoma benefited from Apache Oil's tree giveaway.~~Dee
Anonymous said…
Good for you for planting trees, Dee.
Did you know about Apache's tree give-away?
We are lucky to get all those trees to replace the ones we lost in the ice storms.
Do you research which tres to buy - of course you do!
Jean Warner said…
Thanks. I needed the nudge to get some little trees planted in the front yard (where the huge/dead pin oak tree was until last fall). It is tree plating time!!!

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