Did you plant all the trees in your garden? If you didn’t, who did? Trees can last anywhere from forty to over-four-thousand years and usually are never enjoyed in maturity by those who planted them as saplings. Nearly every other outdoor plant and landscape will come and go, but trees stick around for generations!
Imagine if you could leave a legacy like a tree, something for others to enjoy. How we live each day is a creation of our living legacy.
Growing trees is not only sustainable, but it also helps solve the climate problem. Because trees are 50 percent carbon. And they bring economical benefits too.
The most effective way to fight global warming is to plant a tree. They absorb the carbon dioxide in the air and offset greenhouse gas emissions. Tree leaves absorb pollutants in the air, and forests naturally filter water. Trees play an important role in preserving a healthy environment for future generations.
Trees provide food for squirrels, birds, and people too! Trees are a part of a healthy habitat and food supply for animals, and you could even plant trees that will provide a harvest for yourself! Fruit trees can easily grow in a suburban or even urban setting, giving you truly local produce.
Everyone knows trees provide habitats for animals, but what about their impact on our lifestyle? With so many varieties to choose from, trees make our gardens beautiful and an enjoyable, restful place to be. They provide areas for that rope swing or bird feeder that we watch every morning, and some surprise us with beautiful, fragrant blooms. Trees will be around longer than most people will live in their homes, providing shade for outdoor activity for years to come.
When you plant a tree, this contributes to reducing emissions, as these hardy plants work hard to lock up carbon. Newly planted trees open up new habitats for wildlife such as the red squirrel, the hazel dormouse, the greater spotted woodpecker and other birds like the song thrush and the red kite.
If you plant a tree you will help historical, beautiful and natural places to thrive for ever, and many more people like you will be able to create new memories with their friends and family in leafy green spaces.
The Victorians left a legacy of trees for us to enjoy. Many of our older cities enjoy the benefit of large, old canopy volume trees – a wonderful legacy from a bygone era which is almost impossible to put a monetary value on.
In the vast majority of cases, these trees succeeded through being able to exploit relatively uncompacted below ground conditions which prevailed in our cities when they were growing during the industrial revolution. The engineering standards for paving design were geared predominantly around pedestrian and horse drawn traffic utilising permeable cobble and sett paving on the surface. The by-product of horse drawn traffic did its bit to help, as rain fall washed manure between the pavers!
But this is not the only reason we have some wonderful trees, the Victorian engineers were more far sighted than we had previously appreciated, using ‘tree pit’ design. We are grateful that the Victorian engineers refrained from ‘value engineering’ these tree pits but invested unselfishly for the incalculable benefit we enjoy today.
At Austin and Carnley, we help clients see what kind of “trees” they can plant for future generations to benefit from. Together we can create your legacy. We talk of the legacy lifecycle in a previous blog. Just like us, trees have a cycle of behaviour, to suit the weather.
For each new instruction in a year, we plant a tree. Creating a legacy for future generations.
If you want to create a legacy, both in trees and for your family, our Private Client team are here to help you.