CHALLENGE 14 – Sapling Happening
Planting a Tree
The goal of challenge #14:
- Plant some tree seeds
- Supporting Sustainable Development Goal 15
Hats off to the humble tree
In Spring they burst in to life in all their green glory, in Summer they shade us from the ever-more-scorching sun, in Autumn they dazzle with golden delight and Winter sit quietly with no complaint, continuing to support the landscape and purify the air we breath!

Perhaps I sound like a tree hugger, if so I have absolutely no shame in it 🥰. My recent travels have given me a new-found respect for trees – from seeing first-hand the harrowing deforestation in Borneo, (one of the things that kick-started this blog) to learning that Ireland’s tree coverage fell from 80% – 1%. On the positive side, my uncle Jim who also happens to live in Ireland, made me smile when he showed me a few proudly sprouting oak saplings last May, that he had picked up as acorns a few months earlier and was ready to plant out.
Just like so many of you reading this will relate to, I regularly feel genuine sorrow and insecurity about the relentless reports on the damage and destruction of the environment. As I write this, bush fires rage across not just habitats in Australia, but in the last month there have been over 1.6 million VIIRS forest fire reports around the world. Yet I remain optimistic about the fact that more and more people are starting to take stock of the severity of the ecological state of our planet and there is a growing motivation to act. We are still very much in the infant stage of our turn around, but I think there is movement and new ideologies.
Just a few days ago I read a really inspiring Forbes article about how in the Philippines, which has seen forest coverage fall from 70% – 20% in a century, students are now required to plant 10 trees in order graduate. I found it such a refreshing approach at merging human and environmental development hand-in-hand. So with this in mind and given this week falls inline with the start of a new year I thought, what better challenge could there be than planting a tree …. or try a least!
New Year - Time to Plant a Tree
I happened to have squirrelled (😉) away a couple of acorns from the woods, along with a bunch of apple pips from the apple tree in Oma Lisa’s garden that I collected in the Summer. We now live in a flat with no garden, but I read that lots of trees can be started in pots and planted out after 1 or 2 years, so thats what I am aiming for.
So without unnecessary detail here are a few links that I read for some tips. The pictures above show the float test – when seeds float, they will not be good for planting. Luckily, one of my acorns passed the test.
- Discover Wildlife – How to Grow Your Own Oak Tree
- Wiki How – Grow an Oak Tree from an Acorn
- Wiki How – Plant Apple Seeds
I realise that there is a high chance that my seeds are not going to germinate and for that I have a little something up my sleeve / already on my window-sill.
Proudly presenting my avocado plant with its beautiful big leaves and two little unplanned bonus buddies. I planted this from the avocado stone back in Summer. If you want to give it ago yourself, here is another Wiki How link. As for the tag-alongs, I used this Leaf ID app and think they could be types of ash (left) and maple (right)…. who knows but I hope they keep growing strong.