
On your birthday, gift the environment:
How would you react if someone turns up with a mango sapling as a birthday gift? You would probably find it unusual. But with the strange gift you could actually gift your own surroundings and thereby yourself and so many arround you. So, grow it and most importantly take care of it. (Hey, but even if it’s not your b’day and no one gifts you a sapling, you can always plant shade giving trees). And you’ll be thrilled to see the mango tree growing with you.
Recently the Honorary Secretary of BNHS celebrated his 70th birthday by planting a Banyan sapling. Imagine! If each one of us starts celebrating our birthdays by planting one tree every year, instead of cutting cakes (or along with cakes) then we will do ourselves a great deal of good.
But we sincerely hope you will not just read this and forget. So, start gifting your friends with tree saplings on their birthdays and help them grow the trees. And getting a sapling is not a big problem. You can get them in any tree nursery close to your home.
But you can make a sapling on your own too. How? Well, we’ll help you. And if you are successful in making one sapling, you can make a nursery along with friends from your building. All it takes is a sincere interest. Here’s how to go about it: first of all, collect seeds from ripen jamun or mango fruits that you’ve eaten and dry them in the sun. Keep them sealed in a plastic bag. Take some amount of moist soil (red) add an equal amount of cowdung to it and make a mixture.
All these materials are generally available in nurseries. Take a plastic milk bag and fill it with the mixture. While filling the bag remember not to completely fill the bag, leave some space at the margins. After filling the bag insert the jamun seed deep inside the soil (half of the bag’s depth). Pour some amount of water and leave it in the open. Do not pour too much of water as waterlogging will hamper the plant’s growth. Water the plant just once a day. After few days a small green plant will come out of the soil. Take sufficient care of your plant, and your sapling is ready. Gift wrap it and gift it. Another method of raising a sapling is by using a branch of the original tree instead of the seeds. This method is much easier and quicker. And this time you can use a sapling of the Indian Coral tree.
Select and cut a good stem of the plant which is half a metre long and 3 cm in thickness. Remove all the leaves and plant the bare stem in a pot filled with soil. While planting remember to see that what was originally the lower part is put in the soil and what was upper part is left in the air. This is because plants have a particular direction for the nutrients to flow — from down to the upward direction and if this is disturbed the plant will die.
With regular watering, within a few days you will be excited to see small green leaves growing out from the tips of the stem. Planting seeds and branches is just one side of the story whereas taking care of your plants is the other and important half. Here are some tips how best you can take care of your planted trees. It’s said that talking to plants will encourage them to grow. There’s no doubt that visiting your plants every day will help them grow better because each time you see them you’re bound to notice if they need water or some assistance, and will then supply the need. Whenever you visit your plant check for the following signs of problems:
Discuss your experiences with your friends and family members and encourage them to celebrate their birthdays the your way.




