26 October

Expensive suburbs are often described as 'leafy'. And with summers getting hotter also a fantastic way to keep places cooler. But so many of our towns and cities have very few trees. It changes the whole character of a place, having trees. There are some issues with storms and leaves, but nothing that isn't easily factored in. If you don't live in an expensive location, this is by far the cheapest way to improve the 'look' of your town or suburb. My dad (not in any way a 'greenie') used to say that Australians don't seem to like trees very much. Some Australians do, but he might have had a point, we certainly chop a lot of them down, both in urban and regional areas. And I've known many people who can't bear the thought of a tree in their garden. They also bring rain, if you have enough of them, improve stock health on farms and keep soil more stable and fertile, etc. The Africans are planting an enormous, continent-wide band of trees to try to hold back the Sahara, right now.