
A grandmother made a forest on her own [video] - happy-go-lucky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCEQZDHnAb4
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qubex
My mother passed away when I was 11, in 1992. My grandfather, who owned
property outside of Bristol (UK), planted a forest in her memory and named it
“Pam’s Wood”. He said that memories fade but that the forrest would grow
higher and thicker as time went by and that even in the far future his
daughter’s name would be remembered even though everybody who had ever known
her had long passed away.

~~~
growlist
Wish I could do this near where I live in the UK, but even non-arable land
etc. is getting stupidly expensive. Apparently this is a big unresolved issue
with the recent drive to plant more trees.

~~~
grovehaw
You don't have to own land to plant trees. The Colne Valley Tree Society has
planted more than 300 000 since the mid 60s.[0] It has made a big difference
to the quality of life in the area.

[0]
[https://colnevalleytreesociety.blogspot.com/](https://colnevalleytreesociety.blogspot.com/)

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sudhirj
I think her biggest achievement will be that she's grown a love of the
environment in her children and grandchildren. They all sound deeply
knowledgeable about the forest, which is much more than treating it as a
playground.

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elorant
Reminds me of this, also from India:

[https://interestingengineering.com/jadav-payeng-the-man-
who-...](https://interestingengineering.com/jadav-payeng-the-man-who-planted-
an-entire-forest-by-himself)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkZDSqyE1do](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkZDSqyE1do)

~~~
foobarian
Along those lines: [https://www.odditycentral.com/architecture/man-
spends-23-yea...](https://www.odditycentral.com/architecture/man-
spends-23-years-carving-sprawling-underground-temple-under-his-house.html)

Makes me really sad about the water table where I live (MA) :)

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vishnugupta
I instinctively knew this would be in India, specifically south India. Here’s
a similar story where a lady planted and grew 8000 roadside trees
[https://youtu.be/AHY45HSB-e8](https://youtu.be/AHY45HSB-e8)

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onetimemanytime
I'm always amazed at people with HUGE backyards and acreage...everything is so
manicured. Why? To me it makes no sense, a real forest is very relaxing
(Granted they may have a real forest 500yards away)

~~~
noelwelsh
Lawns originated as a display of wealth, showing that you were so wealthy you
could afford to have land that wasn't devoted to growing food. This attitude
persists, even though the origin is forgotten; the majority of people hanker
after displays of status even if they don't consciously understand what they
are doing. I don't agree with it (I think lawns are stupid and forests are
great) but that's the way it is. To change it would take concerted public
education. I believe some US states (Colorado?) have efforts to encourage
people to plant native species, for example. When I lived in Australia there
were some fairly half-hearted efforts to do the same (though the majority of
people still had stupidly wasteful lawns; Australia is mostly desert, it
shouldn't look like the UK y'all.)

~~~
pjc50
> Australia is mostly desert, it shouldn't look like the UK y'all.

This is the big problem - lawns kind of make sense if you're trying to be a
tiny Capability Brown emulating the English countryside, but outside of the
temperate maritime climate they're highly unnatural and have to be kept on
life support.

~~~
pvaldes
Is a desert now, but that shouldn't prevent us to restore a bit of the old
australian forests here and there.

Some places in Australia have much more water and are typically forested.

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JoeAltmaier
Sounds like a lifelong project, but you could do it too! If you have a little
land, a healthy forest needs only 100 trees per acre. You can plant a couple
of acres in a weekend...

~~~
fiter
You say 100 trees per acre, but Afforestt says 100 trees per 30 sq meters
(0.0074 acre)[0][1]! (This is equivalent to 121,000 per acre.) A mature forest
may only need 100 trees per acre, but it may take a much larger density to get
it started. You may need the soil shaded to keep the soil and leaf fall moist.
You may need the trees to shade eachother. You may need the trees to share
resources through their roots. You may need the trees to protect each other
from the wind.

[0] [https://fellowsblog.ted.com/how-to-grow-a-forest-really-
real...](https://fellowsblog.ted.com/how-to-grow-a-forest-really-really-
fast-d27df202ba09)

[1]
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/pgofw7noxmpfwxg/Miyawaki%20Methodo...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/pgofw7noxmpfwxg/Miyawaki%20Methodology%20Explained.pdf?dl=0)

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Mulch. They grow fine at 100/acre. We're not talking growing timber for
harvest here. Its an urban forest.

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daodedickinson
My mother is curating something similar. Wish I could afford a relationship
and children even more so.

