You’ve probably heard at some point in your life that if you’re feeling down, you just need to go outside and get some sunshine. Take a walk and look at some green things, and you’ll feel better. And while such a nature prescription can’t cure things like depression or anxiety, and can’t make the stresses and worries in your life disappear, there is actually a reason why this idea exists. 

Humans have always, on some level, been aware of our need for nature. We’ve been domesticating plant species to keep them in our homes for over 11,000 years, long before we were aware of the science behind why that made us feel good. Studies have shown time and time again the health benefits of exposure to nature. 

In the short-term, spending time in proximity to trees can reduce feelings of anger and aggression, reduce stress, and boost mood. Though we aren’t yet sure why, the visual intake of flora is linked to the integrity of the amygdala (the part of your brain responsible for emotions, motivation, and stress management).  

Spending time outside also increases your oxygen consumption (since you’re around where all the oxygen comes from), which in turn improves your blood circulation. Better blood circulation means a clearer mind and raised energy levels, and is also linked to improved mood. So “getting some fresh air” is actually a really, really good idea if you’re feeling overwhelmed in the moment. As a bonus, better blood circulation can help lower your blood pressure. 

In fact, nature is used in a wide range of professions as a method of improving health. Patients in hospitals with views of trees and other plants from their room’s window are more likely to require less pain medication and experience less complications than those without, and their overall recovery time is notably shorter. Incorporating trees and shrubs into school buildings (along with direct exposure to nature outside) has shown increased test scores, improved graduation rates, and decreased likelihood and severity of “criminal” behavior. Offices with a respectable amount of indoor plants see a reduction in their employees’ stress levels, as well as better concentration, motivation, and efficiency. 

All of these short-term benefits can compound in the long-term, even if we aren’t consciously seeking out exposure to nature. Urban green spaces are known to increase a community’s sense of…well…community. A park is open to people regardless of cultural and social group, and mingling with people both inside and outside your personal circle is vital to combatting loneliness. 

These short-term benefits, like stress reduction, increased blood circulation, improved mood, etc all also lead to improved overall physical health over longer periods of time. In addition to an overall better general feeling, long-term increases in your encounters with nature can improve a variety of cardio-metabolic conditions. Think heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and other cardiovascular diseases. 

But let’s talk about trees specifically. Because sure, all nature is good, but there’s just something about trees that humans really, really like. Adults in neighborhoods with 30% tree canopy coverage have a 31% lower chance of developing psychological destress, and a 33% lower chance of reporting their general health as “fair” over “good.” 

​These results could not be replicated in neighborhoods with 30% coverage of other types of greenery, like grassy fields or bushes lining the sidewalks. In fact, people in neighborhoods with more grassy areas than areas inhabited by trees actually reported poorer health than even those surrounded by just concrete. 

In cities, an increase of just 11 trees per city block showed significant improvement to the risk factors for cardio-metabolic conditions across the population. The benefits of increasing inner-city tree numbers actually seem to outweigh the benefits of just putting more trees in your backyard—having private access to trees is still linked to sizeable health benefits, but there’s apparently just something about having trees downtown that is really, really good for us. 

There are multiple theories on why trees, specifically, have such an impact on us. The shade provided by trees offers protection from heat and reduces the overall temperature of an area. Though some of us might be more warm-weather inclined, on the whole, humans tend to function better when not overheated. Tree canopies also create a physical sense of protection, which may, on an instinctual level, allow us to relax more. Trees produce larger quantities of oxygen than their smaller plant counterparts, and are often more capable of clearing toxins and pollutants from the air due to the larger surface area across all their leaves. 

There might also be something to the shape of trees. The straight up-and-down growth pattern of trees is visually pleasing (as opposed to, say, a mess of tangled vines). Humans, on average, tend to prefer order to disorder. Trees also offer a pleasing mix of colors, with a range of browns and greys in their trunks, and a wide variety of greens, yellows, oranges, reds, and purples in their leaves. 

Sources:
University of Exeter - Early Humans and 'Forest Islands'
ASLA - Health Benefits of Nature
Psychological Benefits of Walking through Forest Areas
Associations Between Geographical Properties and Brain Structure
Nature, Prescribed?
Impacts of Trees on Mental Health
Trees: An Oasis of Mental Well-Being
Living Near Tress is Good for Your Health
How Forests are Good for the Mind and Soul
Why Trees – Not Grass – Improve Our Mental Health
Urban Tress and Mental and General Health

Yes, you read that right. Thanksgiving tree. If you’re anything like us, you’re currently picturing something like a plain old Christmas tree, just with Thanksgiving ornaments on it. You know, a glass turkey here, a ceramic pilgrim hat there. And sure, there are plenty of those out there, as fun decorations for the season. 

​But the real Thanksgiving tree tradition has much more behind it than just a pretty decoration. 

As far as anyone can tell, the concept of the Thanksgiving tree started circulating the internet sometime in 2018. The idea is pretty simple: make some kind of tree with leaves you can write on, so you can write what you’re thankful for on them. Basically, you’re making a physical representation of your blessings.

​There’s a couple schools of thought on how best to achieve this. Typically, you start by having every guest (friends and family alike) write what they are thankful for on a leaf, and attach those leaves to the tree. At the end of the activity, you have a tree whose branches are laden with the blessings in your life and the lives of those you love. Some families disperse these leaves to their owners at the end of the day, so they can take them home as a reminder of what they are thankful for, but some families recommend writing down the date on each leaf and then leaving them attached to the tree. That way, every year, you can see your tree grow and grow with all the things your family is thankful for, and you can watch how blessings only continue to multiply.

Every family’s Thanksgiving tree will look a little different—they aren’t something you can just go buy in a store, and there are lots of different ways to make one. Some people just use paper, drawing the branches of their tree and using Post-It notes for the leaves. Craftier families have made an actual miniature tree with dried willow bunches you can get from the craft store, and then decorated it with silk leaves written on in fabric marker. 

The level of effort you put into creating the tree is up to you, but no matter what form your Thanksgiving tree takes, it will always be a beautiful and tangible representation of the things we have to be grateful for, the blessings we may otherwise take for granted, and the joys that make life worth living.

Sources:
Best DIY Thankful Trees
The PHS Thanksgiving Tree
Thanksgiving Trees to Make You Grateful
How to Make A Thankful Tree
DIY Thanksgiving Gratitude Tree
Autumn Thanksgiving Tree

​You’ve probably heard of Juglans nigra in the context of black walnut wood, which is a luxury material used in everything from china cabinets to hope chests to dining room tables. Black walnut wood is coveted for its colors and striations as much as its heartiness and durability. A black walnut piece of furniture will last for decades to come (if taken care of). 

​But black walnuts aren’t just pretty as furnishings. The trees themselves are beautiful and larger than life. Young trees can grow up to 2 feet per year until they reach maturity after 12 to 15 years. Their crown spread tends to mirror their height, meaning they grow out just as much as they grow up. How far out, and how high? On average, we’re talking 50 to 75 feet when grown out in the open. When left to their own devices in the forest (or lovingly cared for on a plant farm), black walnuts have been known to reach heights eclipsing 150 feet. 

​Black walnuts generally reach about 6 feet in diameter, their trunks covered in medium brown bark with thick, interfacing ridges. Their branches will happily grow low to the ground if there’s room, but in more crowded forests, they’ll self-prune up to about 2/3 their total height (basically, they’ll let lower limbs die off to direct energy upwards, where leaves have the best chance of getting sunlight, and therefore nutrients). If you’ve got one out in the open and you’d rather not have huge branches growing out into where you’d like to walk around, you can prune them yourself. Black walnuts are bleeders (which means sap runs from any wounds), so be sure to prune during the dormant season, not spring.

​Though they can tolerate less, black walnuts prefer full sun, and need around 6 hours of unfiltered sunlight every day. Luckily, this isn’t usually a problem for them, considering how tall they get. They tolerate a range of soils, and can thrive in acidic, alkaline, loamy, moist, rich, sandy, well-drained, wet, and clay soils. They also have some drought tolerance, and are generally disease- and pest-free. 

​The leaves of the black walnut tree, though skinny, are proportionally just as large as the tree they grow on, reaching anywhere from 1 to 2 feet long! Leaves grow in pairs down a single stem, sometimes ending with a singular leaf at the tip. Leaflets, on the other hand, have toothy ridges—not that you’ll ever see them. They’re usually hidden by their larger, older brethren. This fern-like foliage offers mottled shade that filters harsh sunlight, making them a popular addition to parks and along sidewalks.

​As a deciduous tree, black walnuts lose their leaves in the autumn. During the warm seasons, leaves are a vibrant green, but as the winter months approach, those leaves will turn golden yellow before falling to the ground. When spring rolls back around, black walnuts grow inconspicuous flower clusters. Male flower clusters droop down, while female clusters have terminal spikes. With the help of a little wind, a black walnut can self-pollinate, and the female flowers will grow into delicious black walnuts.

​These nuts don’t start out looking like what you buy in the store. As they ripen in early- to mid-autumn, they’ll look like lime green, fleshy baseballs. Black walnuts aren’t usually harvested off the tree, but are instead collected from the ground after they fall. They’re just as heavy as they look, and those with black walnuts near their house are more than familiar with the intermittent thudding on their roof that signals ripe fruit. 

Fallen black walnuts are known for littering sidewalks and bruising innocent passersby, and are even more notorious for staining any surface they come in contact with. ​ ​ Black walnut tree owners may spend hours picking up the fallen fruit (wearing gloves, of course, because those green husks will stain skin just as readily as clothes). Even if they have no plans to eat it, the tripping hazard alone is worth putting in the work. The fallen fruit will also attract animals like squirrels interested in an easy meal, and will eventually rot and mold. 

​After harvesting, the green baseballs are broken to reveal the corrugated, thick black inner shell. This is the part you think of when you think of walnuts. They’re left to dry out, and can be stored for up to a year. When you’re ready to eat them, you may find them tough to break, but the effort ends with a delicious, sweet nut. Be careful at this stage too, though, because these inner shells, when crushed, can also stain pretty much anything.

Unfortunately, these beautiful trees come with a catch much worse than their sidewalk-staining fruit. Black walnuts are allelopathic. Basically, this means they suppress the growth of other plant species around them to eliminate the competition for resources like sunlight, nutrients, and water. Black walnuts do this by producing something called juglone, which is toxic to many species of flora. 

​Juglone is emitted in large quantities from black walnut roots, which may stretch out 50 feet or more from the base. The substance can also be found to a lesser extent in the leaves and fruit husks, but there’s still enough to harm anything growing beneath the crown of the tree.

​Don’t misunderstand, though, because not all plants are threatened by juglone. Some species even seem to thrive on it, and grow happily and healthily beside the black walnut.

​With careful planning and a watchful eye, you can easily incorporate a black walnut into your landscape without losing any of your existing flora, and enjoy the gorgeous view and delicious nuts every fall.

Sources:
Arbor Day Foundation: Black Walnut
The Old Farmer’s Almanac: Black Walnut Trees
Plant Spotlight: Black Walnut
The Morton Arboretum: Black Walnut