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When you think about planting things, I guess most people think about planting flowers or vegetables.

Flowers are beautiful and light up anyone's life. They make any home, "homier." Fresh vegetables are wonderful; they make for good eating and taste much better than store bought. A home-grown anything is better than its simulated peers that sit on store shelves, under spotlights and light sprays of water.

A homegrown orange or apple from a tree tastes so much better than the commercially produced, purchased products. They are truly Nature's gifts to us.

However, in my biased opinion, the ultimate gifts from Nature are her trees and shrubs. They can offer beauty, fruits, shade, erosion control, refuge for birds, posts for hammocks, and softened outlines for homes.

I love rose of Sharon (Hibiscus siriacus), also called althea. The shrubs mature to an average height of about 4 feet to 15 feet. I have moved and transplanted some of my althea around the yard 3 times, and they keep on blooming, when it's their time. They are so sturdy, faithful, and lovely. The blooms on some 4- to 6-foot high plants are rather small, but others grow up to dinner-plate size.

Bushes can last 10 to 15, or even 20, years. You get more for your money when you plant flowering shrubs, as compared to annual flowers, or even perennials. Our althea tree line is over 15 feet tall on the north side of the property. They act like a windbreak for us. Another row on the east side offers our songbirds good cover from hawks.

But, I think, Nature's ultimate gift is a tree. Remember the poet's words, "Poems are made by fools like me/But only God can make a tree"? (Joyce Kilmer)

However, you can buy a healthy baby tree, bound in burlap, place it in the ground, in a place of its liking, and in a few years, you have a gorgeous, yard enhancing, soul gratifying "Tree."

My dad had a natural "green thumb" for trees. When I was growing up, Dad would stick twigs around the yard and, in a few years, maples, oaks, cherries, pines, willows, and bushes of all kinds would surround us.

When I got married and we got our own home, Dad helped me plant. He greatly admired a giant pin oak in the back yard, and a large sugar maple that hovered over the house. Dad thought we needed some yew bushes as focal points and to prevent erosion - on an embankment. He planted some. He planted some arborvitae along our alley for privacy. Then he carefully planted a "fire bush" in the corner of the yard, just for "nice."

Dad planted that bush

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