Coming up on April 25, 2008 is Arbor Day. It’s a day to celebrate a unique feature of our planet the trees. The trees are so important to us. They serve as the planet’s lungs filtering the air we breathe, they provide us fruit and nuts to eat, paper to read and write with, drugs like aspirin and shade to sit beneath on a hot and humid summer day. Without trees we would be in a desolate place devoid of much of what we love about this planet. Arbor Day actually started way back in 1870 in Nebraska and has continued to this day to spread the planting of trees from the United States to countries around the world.
In an effort to encourage the planting of trees in our yards and gardens around the world I am proposing a simple pledge that I would like everyone who likes trees to sign on and give a try.
Here’s what I propose:
Plant one tree or more in your yard every year. If your yard has no room for a tree plant a shrub or give a tree for someone else to plant in their yard. The key is for you to be responsible for the planting of one tree somewhere.
If you are a garden blogger or a blogger of any kind I’d like to encourage you to share your planting with everyone. Post about your tree planting and send me a link and I’ll add it to a post on Arbor Day this year. Don’t forget to link back to this post so that more people can join in if they can. If you can’t get a tree in by April 25th (that only gives you 10 days) then let me know when you do and I’ll make an update. Just plant one sometime this year!
If you don’t have a blog post here in the comments and tell everyone what tree you planted and why you picked the tree you planted. Try to leave a State or Provence location when you do so everyone can see where its happening!
Over the next several days I plan to make several posts about trees and their importance for our environment (with the exception being tomorrow night since I’ll be at a Hockey game). So please jump in and join the pledge. All you have to do is comment and say you’ll give it a try!
A blogger after me own heart with the lovely tree post and many more to come! I am probably tree planted out but will have to try now! I pledge to plant a tree and let you know you about! Though I can’t guarantee prior to April 25. Does it count if I already planted some this year? Like those day glo redbuds?
Dave, I have several hundred trees on my land. Do I still need to plant a tree? LOL, I tell you what, I find sweet gum saplings all the time, so would anyone like to have one? Just joking, I would not wish those gum ball dropping trees on my worst enemy! I love trees just not Sweet Gums! I found a Willow Oak sapling and dug it out and potted it and gave it to my dad in TN. He did not have a place for it so he gave it to his next door neighbor. Deer kept nibbling at it and I dont know if it survived or not. I must ask about it.
That is a Beautiful picture of the sun and pine tree. Is that a shot from the Smokies?
My newly-purchased river birch is just waiting for removal of a dying Washington Hawthorn in order to take it’s place.
A Forsythia and red twig dogwood were planted recently, and I’m impatiently waiting for our local nurseries to get their shrub stock in so I can get some shrub willows and arborvitae.
Excellent post. I’m looking forward to reading your future tree posts.
Tina,
Sure it counts! Any tree for 2008 will count as far as I’m concerned.
Skeeter,
The goal is to plant a tree where one might not have been otherwise. So if you can maybe donate a sapling to a local school or somewhere that looks like they could use one. I actually like those sweet gums. The fall color is great! That last picture is from Clingman’s Dome in the Smokies. A great place to visit!
Garden Girl,
That river birch will look great. I like the interesting bark that birches have and the yellow fall color is pretty good too. The forsythia and red twig dogwood count. If you do a post on planting your trees let me know so I can link to it.
I thought that spot looked familiar!
I walked to the observation tower when I was 6 years old and again at 43! That was some walk and doubt I will do it again 37 years from now! It is a shame how the trees are dying up there…
I will find a sapling and pass it on. I will hunt for a poplar.
Our sweet gums are not very pretty in the fall only one year they were kind of pretty. I dont like the stuff they drop in the spring, then the gum balls are a pain in the hiney to pick up. They dull the mower blade if I run over them plus when weed eating an area with them, they hurt the legs when one gets thrown at me! They fall on the paved driveway and I have to get them off. The leaves do mulch up nicely with the mower and they do provide good shade but I still dont like them in my yard. I don’t mind them in our woods as I don’t have to deal with anything other then a downed limb after a storm. So they do have a spot on our land.
Excellent advice although I have no more room for trees. However, I’m planning on getting rid of a viburnum that has been underwhelming for far too long and replacing it with a Japanese maple that I’ve coveted for a long time.
Great idea, Dave! Only have about 3/4 of an acre, but have a fair amount of trees…several types of palms, eucalyptus, sycamore, camphor, lemon, apricot, orange, etc. DH and I have, in the past, always bought potted Aleppo pine trees for Christmas and after the holidays, planted them on our property. We’re about maxed out on pines (some are quite large now), but I did plant a Valencia orange recently and am planning on getting another small tree — yet to be determined — for near my back door.
Great photos! Have fun at the hockey game…hope your team wins!
How do I send you a link. I planted my four new Coral Bark bargain trees. They are doing awesome. Maybe link to that post? How do I do that? I am not good with links at all and need some help from the expert!
Skeeter, I had sweetgums in NC. HATED THEM! Great fall color or not they are not worthy of a backyard. There are new cultivars that are supposedly balless (sweetgum ball that is).