THE IMPORTANCE OF PLANTING TREES AND SHRUBS
By Grace Farquharson – copyright 2008
As the population of the world increases and more land is cleared to build houses, shopping malls, schools, government buildings and commercial offices, and of course roads to connect all these, trees become fewer and fewer. Our forests are being depleted at an alarming rate, and even the Amazon jungle, once thought to be infinite, is showing many signs of stress, as not only trees, but also whole species of animal life, are disappearing.
This trend is having a devastating effect, not only on wild life and humans, but also contributing in large measure to the speeding of global warming which is increasing at a much faster rate than initially predicted. People on a whole are feeling helpless when confronted with these problems, and if the topic arises in conversation, many want to immediately change the subject. What’s the use?
However, there is something that the average person can do, and that is planting a tree some garden shrubs, anything with leaves that grows in the earth. The planting of a tree, especially one that is native to the area in which you live, is a positive step that almost anyone can do. You learned in your science classes at school that chlorophyll, found only in plants, is responsible for the manufacture of oxygen from carbon dioxide – carbon that is the chief building block of life and is tied up in the trees and then released by the magic of chlorophyll. What a wonderful thing a tree is!!
In addition to manufacturing oxygen, trees have many other great benefits. Trees add beauty to our landscape, give shade from the sun, many bear fruit we can eat, and provide lumber to build shelter. And if we have a house plant or two, a lonely person will have companionship.
If everyone on earth could find the time to plant one or two trees per year, think of the profound effect this would have on our environment.
Grace Farquharson has worked at Princeton Nurseries Inc. since 1992. She has been an avid gardener all her life and assisted in developing www.princetongardencenter. to complement the plant nursery side of the business. The
garden center now has
solar powered garden lights.