The Benefits of Trees
There’s just something magical about forests. Walking through them in the late afternoon, the sunlight filtering through the leaves. The quiet murmur of animals scurrying about. It’s contemplative, healing even, to spend time within them. I have an orchard of plum, apple, pear and cherry trees on my 100-acre farm in Ancaster, where I also care for old Carolinian forests and am growing new forests with Tulip trees, Kentucky coffee trees and other antique trees. So, I spend a lot of time in and around forests. And I’ve found their benefits, to humans and the natural world, are virtually endless. I can’t imagine my property without its beautiful trees. Consider orchards. Today, most of the world’s commercially grown apples come from just a handful of varieties. But start a small orchard on your property and you can begin to diversify the kind of fruits you and your friends may sample. And once a single tree is established, it can provide a substantial yield of fruit for decades. Of cou