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Health & Fitness

Christmas Trees, Fruit Trees and All Trees

Don't just decorate a tree this December, buy your favorite tree and plant it in your yard to enjoy all through the year.

December should have been our nation's month for Arbor Day because December, via the Christmas tree, brings the "tree" into America's collective consciousness more than any other month.

Think of all the accidental teaching about trees that takes place. In hauling the tree from your car to the living room, your hands get sticky from the resin and smell like varnish or turpentine. Hmm. Maybe we get more than paper from evergreen trees.  Then, you have the dailly chore of watering the Christmas tree since nobody wants to burn the house down. Hmm. This tree, like me, has a vascular system. OK, even if you don't know the word "vascular" you know that something is getting that water from the pan to the needles way up at the top of the tree. Once the holiday passes, you do your good citizen duty and recycle the tree. A big, gold star for recycling! And last, but not least, next December you will buy another Christmas tree. Could this be a renewable resource?  Why, yes, it is. Trees are a renewable resource, unlike fossil fuels.  

But, let's say you don't celebrate Christmas with a live tree or even at all. I still maintain that December should have been Arbor Day month because it may be the very best time to plant a tree. Indeed, I hope everyone reading this will consider it. Surely there is that one tree that has always captured your attention that you would consider planting this month.  s it an oak, a maple, something with flowers on it whose name you don't know? A simple trip to the library or to the bookstore will yield many good books full of pictures so that you can find the name of that tree you want to plant.

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After you find a tree you love, and after you confirm that it is suitable for our climate, you will need to make the purchase. It's certainly possible that you'll find the tree you are looking for at one of the big box stores. By all means, give it a shot. Just know their selections will be limited. If you don't have any luck with the box stores, try a retail nursery. This may be your most expensive option, but it could be worth it for the sake of seeing the inventory with your own eyes and touching it with your own hands. A third option, if you already know exactly what you want, is to purchase the tree via internet and have it shipped.  

As for me, I have decided to do more with fruit trees. There are so many that do well here!  Apples, pears, persimmons, figs, and plums are some of the better known fruit trees for Georgia. Earlier this year I purchased the lesser known paw paw tree, a native fruit tree that yields a fruit with a banana-custard like taste. You need two varieties of this tree for a good fruit yield. But, there is one fruit tree I'm dying to try.  I discovered it one day several years back on one of my long walks. As I went by an old house, I smelled this wonderful pear-apple-undefinable sweet aroma coming from the front yard. I took the picture featured with this post, showing the fruit scattered about on the ground, and went home to look it up. Turns out, it was a quince tree. I have to have it.  

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Here are two mail-order websites for you to look at if you're interested in a fruit or nut tree.  

Johnson's Nursery in Elijay, Georgia 

Ison's Nursery in Brooks, Georgia

So, plant a tree this December instead of just buying one to decorate. Plant a fruit tree, an oak, a walnut, an evergreen. Just plant a tree! 

December is the true month of the tree.

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