Posted on 09/25/2007 5:28:53 AM PDT by Past Your Eyes
Monica Barra went to South Los Angeles last month to attend a jazz festival. She went home with a free tree, a one-gallon African sumac that she lugged around on a Sunday afternoon past the shops and restaurants of Leimert Park.
The college senior took the tree on an impulse, though each tree recipient was required to fill out a "pledge to plant," a form smaller than an index card and a signature feature of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's plan to plant 1 million trees across Los Angeles.
"I just really like having trees and plants where I'm living," said Barra, who majors in literature, historiography and urban studies. "And it was free."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Wonder how many will be mowed over by some non-English speaking lawn maintenance workers hired to cut their lawns for them.
Considering Los Angeles is in the throes of one of the driest years in history can we spare the water? People forget Los Angeles is a desert!
Is the African Sumac even a good tree to plant in the LA basin?
Based on the name, why plant a non-native tree?
Proponents of natural agriculture should have a cow.
Even with the best care, probably 8 out of 10 seedlings will die.
After they've been hauled around in a hot truck for days before they're handed out to the populace, even if they're planted immediately and watered with a drip irrigator, the die off rate will still be 100 percent.
I got a dogwood slip (bare root) from the Home Depot Christmas tree chippers and tried to baby it along. It was a dead tree walking!
And this year has been bad around here . . . I have lost an oakleaf hydrangea and two rhododendrons that I planted in January, simply due to the drought. The county has banned ALL outdoor watering, so they just had to take their chance and they lost. I'm very upset, I don't usually lose plants.
I don’t know anything about “African” sumacs but I never have seen any kind of a sumac that I would deliberately put on my property. It’s just a useless feel-good project for them to crow about.
But at least they all feel good.... (barf)
Now that's funny.
It’s not a bad looking small tree. Since its from So. Africa, I’d guess its good in arid climates.
Our Scout Pack does an annual park cleanup every year at one of the local parks. Sometimes they give the kids a seedling if they want it to take home. When it was over this year, I asked them for all their extras and got about 150 of them. We then took them to my church property, boughts a bunch more Oaks and Maples and the Scouts planted them all as one of their badge requirements.
That was 1 1/2 years ago. The church property is lying fallow as we’re trying to pay it down before we build so I haven’t even been there since. I need to go back and see if any of the trees have grown or if they just became deer food.
What's not to like?
Do you people who are complaining about this hate Lady Bird Johnson, too?
Does anyone have an idea how much more water it would take a year to irrigate 1 million new street trees?
Do you hate George Bush?
What's the point in spending money on something that isn't going to work? At least Lady Bird's flowers grew!
Around here, trees grow faster than we can cut them. There’s more woods here now than when the Pilgrims landed.
The situation is effectively unsustainably "sustainable."
Speaking of trees, it annoys me (and ALL governments and companies do this) when you see all these cute young trees planted...and by mid summer they’re DEAD because-gasp-new trees require more WATER than established trees do!!
No municipality, county, or corporate landscaper seems to realize this, therefore they spend 4 times as much money re-planting new trees each year until finally a wet summer allows them to take root even though neglected.
They did this a few years back. They planted trees all over the place but no one watered them. All along the streets there were dead twigs sticking up.
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