Here's an idea to give long lasting love on Valentine's, Mother's, Father's, Birthdays - anyday gifts. It's time to go past the imported chemical laden flowers and show some more thought and care. Depending on the occasion and how creepy you don't want to be, give handmade chocolates, lingerie, jewellery, wine, baskets, potted plants and flowers.
Or - you can literally give a very thoughtful 15 orphan trees to your giftee, give a hug to the planet as well and like any other living orphan, you can check them out online. Gifts don't get more thoughtful of long lasting than that.
When it comes to Valentine's Day, and you really think about it, you wouldn't even have a valentine if the planet didn't give us all a place to live. And to love and look after us so well – giving us air to breath, water to drink, food to eat and all the materials for anything we could possibly want. Plus, oceans and rivers to swim, mountains to walk, forests to bathe, trees to climb and gardens to enjoy.
I know it sounds a bit like giving Mum a valentine's day gift (and maybe you should), but when you give living plants to anyone, you are also giving the planet a gift too. And she definitely needs all our help right now! So if you are thinking of buying someone flowers, think about potted flowers or a plant instead. Or get someone like Fifteen Trees to plant you some and watch them grow instead. It's called virtual foolproof, how good am I, green thumbing.
It's pretty simple. You buy 15 trees for $82.50 online. People like Fifteen Trees plant them on your behalf. Once planted, they will send you the link to your trees where you’ll see where they have been planted and who has planted them.
If you drive a car, 15 planted trees reduce the footprint of your car for one year. AND not only will these trees help collect the greenhouse emissions from your car for one year, they will also be creating green corridors, providing native wildlife with habitat, and helping to reverse the effects of erosion and raising water tables (causing salt in the soil to rise to the surface). Trees also provide a vital role in maintaining a stable global climate. Not a bad effort from a small grove of trees!
Fifteen Trees has been around since 2009 and have helped plant over 200,000 trees across Australia and New Zealand. While most of our customers are Australian, we can call ourselves truly international, with customers from the UK, Ireland and the USA.
Images: Fifteen Trees