Tree-For-All

Tree-For-All consists of a committee of Santa Monica Treesavers. Their agenda is to save trees, shrubs and plants that would otherwise be destroyed by new developments or new landscaping, by recycling them. This is achieved- with the co-operation of the Developers- by allowing individuals or companies to come to the sites where they can have the trees or plants free, as long as they are responsible for digging them up and removing them.

The first site to welcome Tree-For-All was one at 2602 Broadway, Santa Monica, where the Community Corporation of Santa Monica is planning to build Affordable Housing. It has wonderful grounds, full of amazing mature trees and flowers. In an ideal world, the development would have been built around these trees, and thus enriched the whole project without damaging the environment. However, at least in this case the Project Manager has bent over backwards to try to save as many trees as possible.

Over several months, by holding Open Days, 60 items have so far been rescued. Alas, the mature trees have not yet found homes, which is a tragedy as they are exceptional and would be of immense benefit to the community.

In the first section of this post I will show some of my favourite trees on the site and in the second I will show images from a recent Open Day.

PART ONE:

I will start with shots of the magnificent Pittosporum, which has a trunk that always reminds me of a pregnant woman- especially since my daughter was pregnant when I first saw it!





There are many hedges of Bottle Brush trees and there is a possibility these are going to find a home. Here is one of their flowers:


A tree that has been admired by very many people- but received no bids as yet, in spite of an offer to help with costs from the Project Manager- is this delightful, spherical Italian Stone Pine:


There is a profusion of a wide variety of Camellias, which the Project Manager has generously offered to dig up and box ready for collection. This will happen shortly, and here are some of the blooms:







Finally, another of my very favourite trees is this outrageous Pepper Tree:




PART TWO: OPEN DAY

A good collection of delightful, environmentally aware people came to this Open Day, all appreciating the whole concept. They came prepared to dig, but some planned to come later to pick up larger items they had earmarked. Here, some of the enthusiasts are checking out what's on offer:

And here a child finds a Dandelion clock under a Lemon Tree!


The next four images show some of the intrepid Diggers:





And next they carry off their wares to their cars:




Here they load up their cars:



And there is not much room in the passenger seat:

Should anyone be interested in this particular project, please contact me through "comments" and I can give you a contact's details.