Arbor Day
Arbor Day is a great time of year to find a loving home for a “few” baby blue spruces. We enjoy supporting our local Arbor Day with donations. Our family also loves it when they send us native plants for some of our donations. We want to encourage native plants as much as possible.
Every year our school has trees donated to us for Arbor Day. This year it was baby blue spruces. It seems there are always leftover trees that need a home. I gave many of those trees a home this year. This is such a blessing to be part of a small community that wants to better our environment and encourage others to do so as well. It opens a great opportunity for conversation about the importance of taking care of nature.
Saving the Trees
This year no other teachers wanted the extra trees so I took them all! 95 blue spruces came to be saved by me, they were starting to not look good. Each tree’s roots were wrapped in newspaper and in a bag. The newspaper was not very wet by the time I got my hands on the trees. With a Facebook post out to my fellow villagers for leftover flower buckets so each tree could have a bucket to spread its roots in. I rounded up enough buckets to make it happen.
Starting with an extra large bag of potting soil and dirt from a large dirt pile let the process begin. My husband joined in on the fun of transplanting each tree to its new temporary home. A fellow teacher who has gotten several trees in the past suggested putting them in buckets first and then transplanting them later into the ground. She shared that the survival rate had not been the best. I wanted to give our trees the best fighting chance, so here we are 90+ trees in little buckets fighting to live.
Sharing Baby Spruces
My parents who also live on an acreage ended up taking about 25 of the trees to nurture and then plant on their land. I’m glad they are going to help in the process of taking care of the trees. They also are hoping that the trees will replace their aging older trees.
Now there are about 60 trees left we are still babying them along but I’m hoping for a great success rate to add to our beautiful property. Time will tell as the temperatures are still high and there has not been rain in a while. I’m thankful that we can water them as needed for now, but I hope God will send rain showers soon.
Seeing the beauty
God does share his beauty of the world around us, we just need to see the beauty. I know I often do not take the time to notice what is really around me and how lucky I am. I have a great family and a good job that allows me to be with my children. We are thankful to have a daycare inside a church that will help lead our children in the best way possible. I know that for me it is hard to take time to stop and just be happy for all the good and not see all the hard things going on. Take time today to stop and take in the beauty in your life. Share with those who you love the most what is important to you.