Day 31 · Nature

Plant a tree this year

Decide today where one tree could go, in your garden or at a local planting day, and put the date in your diary.

Planting a tree is the most patient thing a person can do. Someone else will sit in its shade. That is the point. If you have a garden, one native tree in the right spot is enough: a rowan, a crab apple, a hawthorn. Plant between November and March, while it is dormant. No garden? The Woodland Trust, councils and community groups run planting days every winter and are glad of hands. Pick your tree, or your day, now. The rest is decades of quiet.