Muscling upstream

Note: We shipped out the first batch of seeds last week! They should be in your mailbox if you signed up before last Monday. Let me know if you didn’t get it and I’ll send it again in this week’s batch.

I got a tough email last week—

It was from an esteemed NYC arborist, and sort of what I was expecting to hear.

When the 1000 Tree Beds campaign started, I had this naive idea that people could just sprinkle seeds directly into a bed and stuff would grow. I imagined that it’d have to be a little hardier, for sure, but it’d grow nonetheless.

Not the case. Local experts advised that acidity, soil compaction, difficulty watering, and so much more would make it extraordinarily challenging.

So why are we still sending out seeds?

Because we don’t think it’s that far out of reach.

For every obstacle, there’s a way through—

• Bad soil → carefully add amendments; poke holes to aerate it

• People stepping on the tree bed → plant mature plants; add signage/tree guard

• Watering is difficult → Choose hardier species; get a water sprinkler truck to drive around in dry months (out there, but possible!)

That’s probably too much to ask one person to do, but I’m just saying that it can be done. People remediate toxic waste dumps, restore forests, and save entire species from collapse — surely 1,000 of us can figure this one out.

So hold onto those seeds. You’re going to need them.

Till next week,
Mayank