Search...
Home Subscribe
Pie
Home Subscribe
Recent topics Flagged topics Hot topics Best topics
Search...
Search within trees Search permies
Advance search Google search
Register / Login
Living Woods Magazine Woodcarving free 1st issue permaculture bootcamp woman working on barrel organic pools package deal: video, manual, and World Domination Gardening solar dehydrator Steampunk airship invention--show off your invention!
  • Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
Full online Permaculture Design course and Appropriate Technology Course video Building a Better World book,sketch of dandelion and lightbulb IC.org GMC website WGD pond
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • Nancy Reading
  • r ranson
  • Jay Angler
  • John F Dean
  • Pearl Sutton
stewards:
  • Nicole Alderman
  • paul wheaton
  • Anne Miller
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
  • Timothy Norton
gardeners:
  • thomas rubino
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • Matt McSpadden

Why Plant a Tree?

 
Anne Miller
steward
Posts: 16369
Location: USDA Zone 8a
4310
I like...
dog hunting food preservation cooking bee greening the desert
posted 8 years ago
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Destiny Hagest wrote:Bill Mollison left a mark on this world that won't soon be forgotten. His closest friends and family have asked that the world honor him by planting a tree to remember him by. If you share images of your tree for Bill online, please use the hashtag #PlantedForBill.



Other reasons:
Trees produce oxygen
Trees store carbon
Trees produce shade and can help with your electric bills by cooling your home with shade.
Trees provide shelter, food and cover for birds and many other wildlife.
Many trees are lost each years due to Dutch elm disease, emerald ash borer, pine beetle, fire, flood, drought and other perils.

Can you share other reason to plant trees?

Do you have a favorite tree?  Mine are Mimosa and Crape Myrtle [sometimes considered a shrub, but many I have seen grow quite tall].

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

 
John Alabarr
Posts: 81
2
I like...
forest garden chicken solar
posted 8 years ago
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Firewood,
leaf mulch,
Nuts/seeds,
Sap sugar,
Carving wood (baseball bats, hammer handles)

 
Karen Donnachaidh
gardener
Posts: 1508
Location: Virginia (zone 7)
363
I like...
hugelkultur dog forest garden fish hunting trees books food preservation solar
posted 8 years ago
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Trees provide mulch (as a deep rooted dynamic accumulator), carbon or nitrogen source for composting, seed inoculation
Trees provide materials for human housing, barns, fences/pens,bridges, plows, bases of buried wood garden beds/ hugelcultures,plant supports
Trees provide food, tea, water (and aid in water catchment), medicines, tools, transportation (boats/canoes), materials for bows to hunt with, fishing rods for catching fish, materials to start fires and to burn as a fuel source, materials for clothing, containers, dyes, paper products
You know that this list can go on and on..,...getting tired. Trees for beds and bedding. Whew!

With forty shades of green, it's hard to be blue.
Garg 'nuair dhùisgear! Virtutis Gloria Merces

 
K Putnam
pollinator
Posts: 247
Location: Unincorporated Pierce County, WA Zone 7b
31
posted 8 years ago
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Trees are pretty.  They (eventually) block the view of your neighbor's yard.   They come in many different colors that can be combine to create an aesthetically pleasing palette while doing their main job, which is to function as trees.  

Trees are also easy to transplant, once they get to a certain size.  I have killed far more flowers, vegetables, and shrubs than I have trees.  

Trees can act as a windbreak, though in my area, cedar + doug fir + big leaf maple + a November windstorm = terror.  

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

 
Nicole Alderman
steward
Posts: 21686
Location: Pacific Northwest
12208
11
I like...
hugelkultur kids cat duck forest garden foraging fiber arts sheep wood heat homestead
posted 8 years ago
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Trees are fun to climb, and to play in and around.
Trees provide materials for imaginative play and learning.
Some trees make lovely sounds when their leaves rustle in the wind.
Trees can be festive, such as Christmas trees. They help connect us to nature and traditions and family.

Some trees provide homes for nitrogen-fixing lichens, which provide food for various animals as well as nitrogen for the plants.
Some trees fix nitrogen themselves.
Trees create cooler microclimates, and help create rainier ecosystems.
Trees' roots interact with the roots of other plants via with fungus' mycorrhizae  to spread nutrients.
Trees roots provide the sugars fungus needs to survive...and thus supplies us with mushrooms!
Trees provide microclimates that allow other shade-loving, &/or cooler-temperature-loving, &/or acid-loving, etc. plants to live and thrive in.
Some trees host various plant species, such as licorice ferns, and some mosses, that do not grow anywhere else.
Trees, when they die, become nursery logs for other species (like red huckleberry or western hemlock) to grow on. Standing dead trees provide vital habitat for certain animals.

~ Dragons, Fairies and even a Mini-Paul! ~ You Know You're a Permie When...~ All About Permies, including tutorials ~Herbal Hugel Spiral of Randomness!~Tricks to Keep the Dirt from Sliding off a Hugel~List of Cascadia Bloggers and Facebook Pages!~

 
Nicole Alderman
steward
Posts: 21686
Location: Pacific Northwest
12208
11
I like...
hugelkultur kids cat duck forest garden foraging fiber arts sheep wood heat homestead
posted 8 years ago
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
As for a favorite tree, I think mine would be apple. They provide food, a place to climb, shade, lovely flowers, habitat, and happy memories. They are beautiful and useful. There's just something almost magical about a mature apple tree.

~ Dragons, Fairies and even a Mini-Paul! ~ You Know You're a Permie When...~ All About Permies, including tutorials ~Herbal Hugel Spiral of Randomness!~Tricks to Keep the Dirt from Sliding off a Hugel~List of Cascadia Bloggers and Facebook Pages!~

 
John Polk
steward
Posts: 7926
Location: Currently in Lake Stevens, WA. Home in Spokane
353
posted 8 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

..Firewood..


One of the best examples of solar energy:
A tree soaks up sunlight for its lifetime.
That soaked up energy is released into your home on a winter night.

The tree has served many functions before it gives its last hoorah in your fireplace.



 
Marco Banks
gardener
Posts: 1774
Location: Los Angeles, CA
563
I like...
hugelkultur forest garden books urban chicken food preservation
posted 8 years ago
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Because you love your grandchildren . . . even if you are in your 20's and haven't found your life partner yet.

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago.  The next best time is today.  A tree is a legacy.

"The rule of no realm is mine.  But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, these are my care.  And for my part, I shall not wholly fail in my task if anything that passes through this night can still grow fairer or bear fruit and flower again in days to come.  For I too am a steward.  Did you not know?"    Gandolf

 
steve bossie
Posts: 672
Location: Northern Maine, USA (zone 3b-4a)
81
posted 8 years ago
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
to protect the earth and us from the drying and sometimes destructive winds. without trees bare earth is naked and exposed killing life in the soil. also holds soil in place to keep it from being washed away by heavy rain.
 
Devin Lavign
pollinator
Posts: 1114
Location: Pac Northwest, east of the Cascades
336
I like...
hugelkultur forest garden trees chicken wofati earthworks building solar rocket stoves woodworking homestead
posted 8 years ago
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Some wonderful reasons to plant trees.

Another is to have a friend that will grow through out your life that you can watch and enjoy, maybe even hug if you like.

The right tree planted will live longer than you, and your kids and grandkids can watch it grow and remember you as the one who planted it.

"Where will you drive your own picket stake? Where will you choose to make your stand? Give me a threshold, a specific point at which you will finally stop running, at which you will finally fight back." (Derrick Jensen)

 
Anne Miller
steward
Posts: 16369
Location: USDA Zone 8a
4310
I like...
dog hunting food preservation cooking bee greening the desert
posted 8 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Here is a discussion on the Mimosa.  It is a nitrogen fixer.  Some consider it an invasive but I never had a problem with them.  If you don't want the seed pods be sure to ask your nursery for a male, as I believe it is the female that has the seed pods.  The pretty delicate blossum can be a problem so plant away from patios.

https://permies.com/t/8369/Invasive-trees-nitrogen-source




Source

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

 
Anne Miller
steward
Posts: 16369
Location: USDA Zone 8a
4310
I like...
dog hunting food preservation cooking bee greening the desert
posted 8 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I am trying to learn to add a photo so I don't know why it didn't work

Mimosa

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

 
Theo Kiriopoulos
Posts: 2
posted 8 years ago
  • Likes 2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Is there really a better feeling that only comes after years of growing with a tree? Watching it grow tall and strong! I can't think anything more satisfying.
 
David Cummins
Posts: 1
posted 8 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
The world seems to be using more of them than are growing, but regardless of the statistics, we need them in huge amounts. and for all the reasons posted and more.


 
Glenn Herbert
Rocket Scientist
Posts: 4558
Location: Upstate NY, zone 5
587
5
posted 8 years ago
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Thirty some years ago when I was starting my house, I transplanted a white oak sapling near the front door location. It took fine, but a borer cut off the growing top. A sucker came up from the roots and was as tall as the original in a couple of years. A borer cut that one off. A third sucker came up, and is now over 10" dbh and shading the driveway while the first two are still alive at 3-5".

Planting a tree involves you in the living world.
 
R Spencer
pollinator
Posts: 154
Location: Mid-Atlantic zone 5ish
34
I like...
forest garden trees woodworking wood heat
posted 8 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
It helps the plants win

plus Ecosystem_Services

seeking mutualism, discovering trees

 
Roberto pokachinni
gardener
Posts: 3489
Location: Fraser River Headwaters, Zone3, Lat: 53N, Altitude 2750', Boreal/Temperate Rainforest-transition
690
I like...
hugelkultur forest garden fungi trees books food preservation bike solar woodworking
posted 8 years ago
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Caribou need forests that are a minimum of 25 years old for habitat.  As the forest grows to that age or older it develops a much greater complexity, including many more lichens and fungi.  The clearing of boreal forests not only has disrupted this habitat cycle, but has increased the wolf and coyote population which naturally prey on caribou, furthering their decline.  (it is said that it will be a very sad day indeed when we can actually count the number of caribou---may they live long and prosper)  Trees, and especially full blown large intact forests, form habitat and climate on a time scale and complexity that humans seldom come close to understanding/comprehending when creating forest 'management' plans.  

Trees work directly and deeply with mineral soils , macro fungi, and the voluminous microbial ecology.  

Trees stabilize the groundwater.  I've seen a formerly forested area turn into a swamp after the old growth was cleared because the water table rose so much.

They help to stop water and wind erosion, by slowing and calming water and wind flow patterns.  

Hugulkultur!  

Safer bird roosts and nesting spots.

Trees offer differing heights where select insect species are locally endemic (only will live at that place).  Some insects and birds will only survive in a place where their is a certain height of tree. Upper canopies of old growth forests are places where many new species are still being discovered.

Trees are the only place that I've seen plants growing so far off the ground with no mineral soils. In the case of the Coastal Oldgrowth on Haida Gwaii, I've seen salal, huckleberry, sword ferns, and even hemlock trees growing in the upward curving arms of large western red cedars a hundred feet above the ground.

Trees transpire a massive amount of ground water into the air, and thus create rain in distant locations.    

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."-Margaret Mead "The only thing worse than being blind, is having sight but no vision."-Helen Keller

 
Roberto pokachinni
gardener
Posts: 3489
Location: Fraser River Headwaters, Zone3, Lat: 53N, Altitude 2750', Boreal/Temperate Rainforest-transition
690
I like...
hugelkultur forest garden fungi trees books food preservation bike solar woodworking
posted 8 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

I transplanted a white oak sapling near the front door location

This is part of a cools story that Glenn is relating, but I just wanted to point out that in my way of thinking: I would never contemplate planting what is to become a large tree close to my house.  Not only has it potential to fall wholesale or drop large branches on the house, it also as the potential to tear into foundation material (destabilizing the house), drain tiles, sewage/greywater systems (destabilizing necessary flow patterns).

The Indigenous People's of the Pacific North Coast, through great cost of time and labor (using stone tools and charring fires), would clear the coastal oldgrowth trees so that their longhouses would not have any potential tree fall upon them.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."-Margaret Mead "The only thing worse than being blind, is having sight but no vision."-Helen Keller

 
Karen Donnachaidh
gardener
Posts: 1508
Location: Virginia (zone 7)
363
I like...
hugelkultur dog forest garden fish hunting trees books food preservation solar
posted 8 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hello Theo, David and Forus. Welcome to Permies! Glad y'all are tree fans too!

Anne, love a mimosa. Reminds me of my grandma's house. Love a weeping willow too.

With forty shades of green, it's hard to be blue.
Garg 'nuair dhùisgear! Virtutis Gloria Merces

 
Anne Miller
steward
Posts: 16369
Location: USDA Zone 8a
4310
I like...
dog hunting food preservation cooking bee greening the desert
posted 6 years ago
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Besides being pretty some trees provide food for humans and pollinators.

  Mimosa Tree


 Honey Bee on a Wild Apple


   Bee on a Peach blossum

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

 
Borislav Iliev
Posts: 51
Location: The Balkans, Sofia
8
I like...
forest garden fungi trees
posted 6 years ago
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Plants are very superior organisms able to convert and store the sun energy, and thats how our story begins, trees are superior plants, able to mine deep into the ground, and get really tall in competing for the sun, it is not hard to get why people in the past had their sacred trees, it is pretty intuitive and not hard to get what is going on, it is very simple and hardcore truth that trees run the show in many ways.
I believe humans should constantly think how they can make the things work better, how can we make a system that can capture even more energy than the wild thing(energy inputs being calculated so that it will be fair), if we can manage that then humans will be something beneficial that happened on that Planet, if not objectively seen we are just a bad parasite or a cancer that happened.

If we choose to be something useful in that big picture life is, something that make things work even better, then trees are the answer!
I think with abraham religions people lost many of simple truths about reality, people should go back to nature and find their place there, we all can see what happens with our species if we lack the sense something is more important and greater than ourselves.

Eventually we will run out of all that stored energy, and reality will put us in the right track, the big problem now is that we are wasting that great gift in a very unwise way, not planning and investing in the future, but we just spend it like a kid spends money for candies which will ruin its teeth at the end.
 
Anne Miller
steward
Posts: 16369
Location: USDA Zone 8a
4310
I like...
dog hunting food preservation cooking bee greening the desert
posted 4 years ago
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Some pretty trees:





Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

 
Janet Reed
pollinator
Posts: 343
Location: Dry mountains Eastern WA
79
posted 4 years ago
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Marco Banks wrote:Because you love your grandchildren . . . even if you are in your 20's and haven't found your life partner yet.

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago.  The next best time is today.  A tree is a legacy.



How lovely....

And because you hope someone will look at that tree years and years from now and touch it as your hands had touched it; and wonder.
 
Jay Mullaky
pollinator
Posts: 156
25
posted 4 years ago
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Anne Mllier

What is the blue tree in the first picture? And is it frost hardy?
 
Anne Miller
steward
Posts: 16369
Location: USDA Zone 8a
4310
I like...
dog hunting food preservation cooking bee greening the desert
posted 4 years ago
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
    Send
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
This is the tree: https://www.valleymorningstar.com/2019/05/12/vitex-a-superstar-3/



Vitex, often referred to as the Texas Lilac.  Also known as the Chaste Tree








Another blue flowered tree:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacaranda_mimosifolia

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

 
life is short - but not as short as this ad:
turnkey permaculture paradise for zero monies
https://permies.com/t/267198/turnkey-permaculture-paradise-monies
reply
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
Boost this thread!
Similar Threads
More...