It is good to plan the year ahead. When is the best time to plant (rainy season) , what events are coming up?
These might be
- Birthdays – instead of giving people plastic goods, why not give a plant of sapling instead (if you grow your own plants like avocados from seed this is a lovely gift!) When your own birthday is coming up you can ask for the number of trees of your years – but this you will need to plan – where might they be planted, how will they be watered..
- Church events – like patronal festivals, conferences, synods – these are great opportunities for sapling distribution – you will need to plan in advance to get the donations of trees , invite the bishop or priest to bless the trees before they are distributed
- Confirmations and baptisms, each candidate can be invited to bring a tree/sapling to the service for blessing. Explain how they are a symbol of your spiritual growth, if they are not watered and cared for they will not grow.
- Funerals – this is a wonderful way to remember a loved one, especially if they are laid to rest far away, the tree can be a special place where you remember them as you rest it its shade.
- Tree plantings at schools. if you can get your local school or your children’s schools involved this is a wonderful way for children to fall in love with tree growing at a young age and also because they are many they can do a large tree planting event easily
- Environmental days – use environmental days such as World Environment Day (5th June) World water day (22nd march) , World day to combat desertification (17th June) etc
I am sure you have many other ideas that you can include in your year planner!