Nurture Nature; Plant a Tree, Save a Tree
I can’t say enough about Petersburg being a tree city. Trees have been ignored and considered expendable for far too long. I have two Ash trees that I’ve spent a lot of money on trying to save. It looks like they not going to make it and must come down. I will cry. Those trees were here for the past 20 years I’ve lived here and are in many pictures of my now deceased pets. They will leave an awful blank spot in my yard and my heart. To me, new subdivisions are an eyesore most specifically because they are devoid of trees. They appear stark, uninviting, and like I said before, without trees during the hot summer months, the homes in treeless subdivisions literally bake in the heat.
J. Sterling Morton’s idea of Arbor Day needs to be acknowledged and venerated now more than ever. Trees can literally help reverse the over-accumulation of CO2 and give us pure oxygen in return. They are a remarkable part of our environment’s system of coping with pollution. Yet the first thing someone does when excavating to build is mow all the trees down. How tragic.
My husband and I just purchased vacant property down the road from us to preserve it.. There isn’t much property like this left. There are 80 ft. evergreens blocking the view of the road. When I walk onto the property, it’s like a sanctuary. There are actually live bunches of Ash trees blooming still. It opens onto open water on the mouth of the Huron River. I was standing on the property one day when the neighbor across the street came running over. She said she was so distressed it was for sale. Someone was going to ruin her little slice of heaven over there and bulldoze all that wonderful nature down. I told her I bought it. She almost knocked me down with her hug. She asked what we were going to do. I said “nothing.” It will stay that little slice of heaven for as long as we own it. Her sentiments were my sentiments. Call me nuts, but I’m a little tired of “progress” and never ending human sprawl. Surely someone would have knocked all the trees down and planted a giant albatross of a house it. Na,na,na!!!
Think twice about the easy disposal of trees, shrubs, or any type of greenery. They take in carbon dioxide and give us oxygen. If you plan to build try to keep some trees on your property. They provide shade and windbreaks. And plant more large trees and shrubs. Many people receive Arbor Day Foundation literature in the mail and toss it. Big mistake. For a small fee a person can fill a yard with trees and shrubs of all sorts through the Arbor Day Foundation. When they say they will send 10 trees for a pittance, it’s true. I’ve supported the Arbor Day Foundation for years and purchased plenty. Of course the new plantings are small, bordering on miniscule and some appear to be nothing but a stick or twig. But oh how they transform.
When you receive your order from the Arbor Day Foundation, plant all you receive in a tilled bed first. It keeps them together where it’s easier to nurture them and helps avoid running them over with your lawnmower, and bunnies or deer eating them. Within a few years they will be ready to transplant where you want them. I have a 30 ft. Silver Maple, a 20 ft. Pin Oak, and a beautiful 12 ft. Blue Spruce Evergreen that began as twig, another twig, and what appeared to be a 3 inch top sprig of an evergreen someone lopped off.
I’ve also purchased for next to nothing a fence of lilac bushes through the Arbor Day Foundation. Again, they looked like twigs when I got them but now tower over my head in rich pungent blooms every spring. I know we are a nation of “want it nows,” but time flies. I thought the same thing when I plant all these teeny tiny shoots. It’s been only 10 years for much of the things I’ve mentioned to spring forth and tower over my property. So think about it. If you have the patience you can get 10 times the trees through the Arbor Day Foundation as compared to the purchase of one at a nursery. For large property owners it’s the only way to go and you’ll be helping the environment 10 times more, as well as, assuring the Arbor Day Foundation continues on, an idea of J. Sterling Morton that is one heck of a legacy for Monroe.