I love trees.

One of my reasons for wanting to move from our new, bare, constructiony neighbourhood into a mature, well-established one was the trees.  Or lack thereof.  I despise looking around and seeing nothing but houses.  It was way, way, awy worse in our last neighbourhood – townhouses as far as the eye could see – so this place was an improvement…but not by much.   They should plant the trees and grass 5 years before starting new construction so that once the houses are up, it already looks homey and green and lived in.

I like green.  I like the outdoors.  I like feeling surrounded by nature, even when I’m in the city.  So when buying our new house, I focused as much on the outside as I did on the inside.  We had a list of requirements.  One of them was having trees, or some kind of greenery on our property other than grass and a wimpy, barely there baby tree.  I wanted big.  Full.  Healthy.  And I got it. 

Not only do I adore the new house on the inside, the outside is wonderful.  A decent backyard, and a front yard shaded by a beautiful tree.  It’s not exactly a swing on the branches kind of tree, but it’s taller than the house and very impressive.  The backyard was bare of trees, but it was something we had planned to work on once we moved in. 

Yesterday, as I was flipping through one of the free daily papers, I spotted a blurb at the top of one of the pages.   It said that Ottawans are invited to register for a free tree to plant on their property.  One is available per household, to be picked up in the fall.  You don’t have to ask me twice.  I registered as soon as I got into the building.  And then I told all my co-workers to register.  And now I’m telling you (for those of you who live in Ottawa, or used to and still own property here). 

What a fantastic idea.  I’m so onboard with any program that is in place to further green up the city.  And that’s exactly what this one is attempting to do.  Their goal is to plant 100,000 trees between 2007 and 2010 to be on target to join the Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign, a major worldwide tree planting campaign with the objective of planting at least one billion trees worldwide.

So.  Visit www.ottawa.ca/TREE and register for your free tree.  You can choose a small one (that won’t grow over 10 metres) or a large one.  It’s all on a first come, first served basis.  So do it now.  Now!  Plant a tree.  Then you can hug it all you want.   I plan to.