Three Days of Smiles
Who would have thought that tree planting could bring so much joy! Yet, year after year, planting after planting, it is becoming increasingly evident that there is something fundamentally cheerful about tree planting, a positive impact. Simply put, it feels good.
Preparation, organization, and coordination always require some effort. But during and after the process, the joy of existence permeates those who participate.
In five years, we have certainly surpassed a thousand planting events; we are not speaking into thin air. We cannot really recall an event where the overwhelming fatigue was not accompanied by the joy of satisfaction. Sometimes, this gentle cheer can even rise to euphoric levels.
Another GreenGo Miyawaki
Such elevated joy was felt when, after so much planning and waiting, we could finally embark on a more significant planting in Zugló, Budapest. After all, this is Pest, a district with rare favorable conditions for planting.
Now, finally, all the necessary conditions came together.
The area was provided by the Zugló Municipality, and GreenGo Budapest contributed to the purchase of the trees, and the car-sharing company’s employees celebrated the 8th anniversary of its establishment with us by planting the 5th Greengo mini-forest.
We planted the small forest and several mature park trees at the corner of Mogyoródi Road and Angol Street, so that this corner of the city would have better air quality and a fresher feel during the hot summer months.
We used the following plant species: hawthorn, common hornbeam, small-leaved lime, silver lime, early maple, field maple, flowering ash, high ash, bird cherry, sessile oak, pedunculate oak, downy oak, Turkish hazel, wild apple, wild pear, wild plum, sour cherry, field elm, old elm, hawthorn, striped goat willow, blackthorn, fleshy dogwood, and red-ringed dogwood.
Hexagonal Forest – Kecskemét
Kecskemét has been an important location for us since the early days of the 10 Million Trees initiative. Now, with old friends in a new formation, we worked in an extremely encouraging manner, and most importantly: in good spirits, appreciation, and amidst the best possible feelings.
As noted by KecsUp, the local newspaper, the Hexagonal Mini-Forest was born out of community cooperation and crowdfunding.
The organizers “relied on the financial contributions of their followers, sympathizers of their goals, tree-loving residents of Kecskemét, as well as local companies and businesses – and not in vain. The Zwack Kecskemét Pálinka Manufactory offered 1 million forints, while the Jane Goodall Institute Hungary, along with various smaller and larger companies and individuals, contributed an additional 880,000 forints.”
The members and representatives of 10 Million Trees from Budapest also joined in numbers to participate in the inspiring event.
“A couple planted a tree in memory of their recently deceased little boy – KecsUp reports again, – an elderly gentleman “just”
brings a bag full of food and drinks to treat the volunteers, three university students from Budapest travel to Kecskemét to grab a shovel, a grandmother tells stories to her singing granddaughter about flowers, and strangers begin to chat with each other with the greatest ease – there was no shortage of heartwarming and touching moments.”
There was certainly plenty of joy.
And we are also happy when the threads come together, when old acquaintances return to us in new roles.
The Kecskemét 10 Million Trees community, a group of about fifteen members from the Greening Civil Society, enlisted the expertise of András Zakar, the former CEO of Főkert, for the planning of the Miyawaki forest. Under his guidance, Hungary’s first Miyawaki mini-forest was created in Tabán in May 2021, followed by our first such special mini-forest six months later, and we also planted a few of these together with Főkert.
On this occasion, we planted our 26th mini-forest.
The event attracted, without exaggeration, tremendous interest. We were able to place over a hundred tree and shrub seedlings in the 32 square meter Pentagonal Mini-Forest, and nearly every seedling had a planter. Despite the program starting in -2 degrees Celsius, the tea, mulled wine, and especially the good spirits made us forget all difficulties.
The number of attendees was significant because the individual saplings were purchased by different people, some out of ecological commitment, but as mentioned above, there were families who set up a long-lasting memorial for their lost child on this occasion.
We planted the following species: early maple, small-leaved lime, field elm, flowering ash, Hungarian ash, sour cherry, bug-eyed hornbeam, white mulberry, fleshy dogwood, friend shrub, honey apple.
The number of Miyawaki mini-forests created by us and in collaboration with us has now reached 26.
Tápióbicske – over 2000 trees planted!
We also visited Tápióbicske, and this village is now famous from this day forward for being the third to implement the 1 person – 1 tree principle, thanks to the ambition of Mayor Róbert Herczegh, having planted 1510 trees and 550 shrubs, which means that with a population of 3600, a tree has now been planted for every resident.
Previously, they planted along the bank of the stream with the saplings received from us, exceeding 2000 trees, and thanks to the well-chosen location at that time, all the trees have taken root.
Last year, we had the fortune to plant thousands of trees in the semi-snow-covered soil of Mátyásföld. Now we were welcomed under similar conditions.
However, we navigated this with sufficient experience. At today’s planting, not only we participated, but also members of the HaverVagy community and employees of MSD Pharma Ltd.. A total of about seventy of us gathered. It was a nice number, thanks to which we successfully planted the first 2060 trees of a forest initiative between 10 AM and 2 PM.
The planted species:
field maple, Tatar maple, Hungarian ash, white poplar, black poplar, field elm, sessile oak, pedunculate oak, downy oak, wild pear, hazel, red-ringed dogwood, black elderberry.
We still have tasks ahead of us this year, but our attention and energies are already focused on
we are focusing on.
We hope that we will achieve a qualitative leap that will not only change our lives but also bring a shift in the Hungarian attitude towards nature, the ecological crisis, and biodiversity.
Therefore, we ask everyone to draw a nice big tree in their calendar for the date of Saturday, March 1, 2025, and to prepare their friends or family environment so that on that day, we all (those involved in the ten million tree initiative and even those who have never planted before) will plant trees together!
