Trees are the longest living organisms on the planet and one of the earth’s greatest natural resources. They keep our air supply clean, reduce noise pollution, improve water quality, help prevent erosion, provide food and building materials, create shade, and help make our landscapes look beautiful. Here are some more thought-provoking facts and figures about our oldest citizens and living treasures…trees!

1. Well-maintained trees and shrubs can increase property value by up to 14%.
2. Trees properly placed around buildings can reduce air conditioning needs by 30%
3. A mature tree removes almost 70 times more pollution than a newly planted tree.
4. A healthy tree can have a value of up to $10,000.
5. The shade and wind buffering provided by trees reduces annual heating and cooling costs by 2.1 billion dollars.
6. Each average-sized tree provides an estimated $7 savings in annual environmental benefits, including energy conservation and reduced pollution.
7. A single tree produces approximately 260 pounds of oxygen per year. That means two mature trees can supply enough oxygen annually to support a family of four!
8. Water originating in our national forests provide drinking water for over 3400 communities, and approximately 60 million individuals.
9. One tree can absorb as much carbon in a year as a car produces while driving 26,000 miles.
10. Over the course its life, a single tree can absorb one ton of carbon dioxide.
11. An average American uses about 750 pounds of paper every year, and 95% of homes are built using wood. That means each person uses the equivalent of one 100 foot tall, 16 inch diameter, tree every year for their paper and wood product needs.
12. About one third of the United States of America is covered by forests.
13. According to the last forest inventory, there are almost 247 billion trees over 1 inch in diameter in the U.S.
14. The average tree in an urban/city area has a life expectancy of only 8 years.
15. The tallest tree in the country is a Coast Redwood growing in northern California’s Redwood National Park. It is 369 feet tall and over 2000 years old!
16. http://www.savatree.com/tree-facts.html  from this site.

                                    Colorado Blue Spruce in all its Winter Wonder

Trees help our environment and evergreens look fantastic even in the winter.

We went to a tree seed meeting this January and had the honour of visiting an araucaria forest in Chile. I love trees but had no idea how this unique Monkey Puzzle Tree Forest in the mountains of Chile, near the Argentina border would affect my view of trees and how important they really are in our world.

Seeing that forest of ancient looking trees, some 1000 years old or more was one of those of life’s experiences that I will never forget. Apparently part for Jurassic Park was filmed and it is truly magnificent   place. So next time I plant a tree, I will think of all the living that will go on after I am gone and someone else will enjoy that tree I planted for many more years.

Plant a tree for yourself, plant a tree for the environment, plant a tree for futures generations, there is no good reason not to plant a tree.

January  17, 2013

Thanks for Reading.

Sheila

green living how are we doing?

In the Louisiana parish that was home to generations of my family, people lived hard lives as field hands or sharecroppers, laboring from “can see in the morning” to “can’t see at night.” They hoed and picked cotton, corn, peas and other crops; they understood the planting cycle; they ate locally grown fruits and vegetables without ever visiting a supermarket.

Long before the terms “eco-friendly” and “environmentalism” came into vogue, generations of Americans embraced the principles of recycle, reuse, reduce without ever naming them. Earth love was lived rather than proclaimed. And it was passed on naturally, without an advertising campaign or a smartphone app.

Arbor Day, first observed in 1872, seems like an appropriate time to celebrate these early adopters of green living.

My father was part of a generation that left the South en masse, though what they knew about the earth never left them. Even as a child in Los Angeles, I could spot them. They were like my dad who, in the 1980s, long before the “urban farming” trend, seemed intent on turning our South Los Angeles backyard into a Farmville. He grew greens, onions, okra, cucumber, tomatoes and, for a time, sunflowers. The practice wasn’t so strange; other people did it too. The neighbor a few doors down had chickens.

In the South, it is still easy to see the roots of this way of life. During a visit this month, I went to the old “colored” high school in Franklin parish. The school is shuttered; the bRichard building is in a state of disrepair. But the trees stand stately and resilient on the stretch of grass in front of the buildings.

“We planted those trees,” my dad says, as he pulls from the highway onto the dirt road in front of his former school.

The trees and the school were born in the mid-1950s when my dad was a teenager. In those days the color line divided everything, even earth love. On Arbor Day, white students planted over here, African Americans over there.

As Dad and his classmates planted, some of them knew that they would soon leave this place in search of something the South was unwilling to offer them: level ground on which to plant a life. Today, I see the trees Dad and his classmates planted as evidence of their young hope.

This must have been what the scientist and former slave George Washington Carver had in mind when he said, “Plant a tree.” Though best remembered for his innovative uses of the peanut and sweet potato, Carver “spoke for the trees” decades before Dr. Seuss created the Lorax. Carver, who taught at what was then known as Tuskegee Institute, saw the planting of trees as a way to mark the transitions of life: births and deaths and weddings. Each generation leaves the world an essential gift in the trees that it plants, marking the atmosphere with their signatures.

Today we have options that Carver and previous generations never had. In our high-tech world, soon anybody with a smartphone equipped with a tree identification app can stand in front of a tree and know it. Snap a photo of a leaf and the phone will function as an electronic field guide, providing vital information about the tree. Today, iPhone and iPad users in certain parts of the country already have this ability through the app known as Leafsnap. Imagine what Carver would say if he could see us now!

Whether new technology will make younger generations love trees (or anything else in nature) better than before is an open question. Today we can go bird watching, or we can pull out our smartphones and play Angry Birds. We can grow vegetable gardens in our backyards, or we can play Farmville on Facebook.

As of March, Leafsnap had been downloaded more than half a million times, a sign perhaps that the old message is sinking new roots.

Jocelyn Y. Stewart was a 2011 fellow at the Alicia Patterson Foundation.

From LA times article.  We just had to share. Sheila, Robin, Amy

April 9, 2012: It is all about trees this month from us at the Farmhouse.
Celebrate your special occasions in life with lasting memories by giving your guests a special gift that will live on in their hearts.
Place your order in April and receive 2 free tree seedlings to Plant a Memory for a Greener Tomorrow!
Happy Earth Month. How is it going so far? Sheila, Robin & Amy

Most often, couples would want their wedding to be unique and to be memorable.

A wedding is a time for the couple to celebrate as their two hearts become one. They would want to share this celebration with people close to them, including family and friends. One way that a couple can show their appreciation to their wedding guests for celebrating their union with them and at the same time spice up the wedding themes in each tables, is by giving them wedding favors which they can bring home as keepsakes. This would serve as a remembrance for your guests which would allow them to reminisce the time when they were a part of your special day.

Why not have the memories grow with lasting guest gifts of seeds or trees.
Celebrate the Earth this year by giving your guests the strength of a Tree , the beauty of Flowers or the essence of herbs.
Choose from our selection of over 200 earth-friendly favors and create “growing memories ” of your Wedding Day .
April is Earth Month and April 22nd is Earth Day. If you purchase your favors in April we will give you  2 tree seedlings that will grow with your marriage and remind you of this spectacular time in you life.

give trees, create growing memories