Did you know that Hunting Park is one of the hottest neighborhoods in the city of Philadelphia? That’s because our neighborhood doesn’t have enough trees on the sidewalks. That is why our Girl Scout Troop 09007 planted trees last fall.
That day, we met Ivana from Esperanza in front of Case Paper on Tioga Street. First, Ivana, her students, and her coworker started to pull out the old, dead trees. Then, once they were finished, the four girls from our troop began to dig a hole, and we started to plant the trees.
Ivana showed us how to plant a tree:
HOW TO PLANT A TREE:
- Gather your supplies and the tree.
- Dig a hole with a pointed shovel; make sure to put the dirt close by to use later.
- Once you think the hole is big enough, take out the tree’s roots from the package the tree came with and put it in the hole to see if it is big enough. If the origins are striking out, you must widen your hole.
- If the hole is big enough, put the tree in and have somebody hold it straight up.
- Start to put the dirt back in; first, put dirt around the trunk and add water. That makes it easy to find all the spots where the air is, so your tree won’t fall over.
- Then put the rest of the dirt in, covering the hole you made.
- Finally, add the stakes to help the tree stand up and tie them to the tree.
Trees are important because they provide shade to help people get cooler in the summer, help clean the air, and help people with asthma.
Even though it was cold and windy, we had fun together getting DIRTY!!!
I’m proud of my Girl Scout friends for planting trees. We all earned our Tree Promise badge.
You can get a free tree from Ivana to help our neighborhood!!! Please email her at igonzalez@esperanza.us
*Ximena Vargas is a 9-year-old Girl Scout Troop 09007 member who was part of the tree planting events in Philadelphia.
