Mid-winter Workshop: Prophet Isaiah and Tree Planting

It’s not too early or late to prepare for some tree planting. Below I offer you a passage from the prophet Isaiah to inspire your tree-planting. You can find many good nurseries to provide seedlings and potted trees according to your needs and desires, and I hope you find one to suit you. If you live in Pennsylvania, you can take advantage of the PA Game Commission or Conservation District tree sales. There are some nice nurseries for native and edible shrubs west of the Cascades in WA and OR.

And I would be happy to provide you with trees from my humble little nursery. Currently I have sativa x dentata seedling chestnuts, butternuts, blue spruce and english(?) oaks on hand.

(I may have 20 or so american chestnut seedlings available this spring too. These won’t be blight resistant however, so better for planting here in the Pac NW, rather than NWPA.)

The peculiar mix is a reflection of trees established in my sub-urban neighborhood, the seed distribution into my backyard provided by squirrels and scrub jays, and my eclectic mind. I hope to offer more native trees and shrubs as I am able to propagate these.

But they will make interesting landscape additions, edible plantings for home garden, farm, or experiments in nut-breeding. The spruce might make good trees for experiments with bonsai.

These are 1 and 2 yr old trees, available potted at $30 per tree.

You can arrange to pick them up in Olympia, or on Vashon Island.

I can also mail these bare-root between now and April, with an added shipping charge.

*fungi, moss, alder leaves, log: Fisher pond, Vashon Island*

This scripture faithfully imagines God’s work of restoration and healing as tree-planting.

What a delight to read and wonder about the several species named here!

There is a repetition of the word meaning ‘together’ in Hebrew that is not quite captured in the English or Spanish. To me this suggests that an intertwined life of the trees planted together in the waste ground is a ecological reflection of what appears in understanding and vision shared by the people beholding the Lord’s loving work and presence.

What are these trees?

What were they good for to the people of ancient Israel?

What did they mean in Isaiah’s day?

What might these mean or symbolize to us today?

Isaiah 41:19-20

אֶתֵּ֤ן בַּמִּדְבָּר֙ אֶ֣רֶז שִׁטָּ֔ה וַהֲדַ֖ס וְעֵ֣ץ שָׁ֑מֶן

אָשִׂ֣ים בָּעֲרָבָ֗ה בְּר֛וֹשׁ תִּדְהָ֥ר וּתְאַשּׁ֖וּר יַחְדָּֽו׃

לְמַ֧עַן יִרְא֣וּ וְיֵדְע֗וּ וְיָשִׂ֤ימוּ וְיַשְׂכִּ֙ילוּ֙ יַחְדָּ֔ו

כִּ֥י יַד־יְהוָ֖ה עָ֣שְׂתָה זֹּ֑את וּקְד֥וֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בְּרָאָֽהּ׃

19 I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive;
I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together,
20 so that all may see and know, all may consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.

(NRSV)

19 Pondré en los desiertos el cedro, la acacia, el mirto y el olivo;
pondré en el yermo el ciprés, junto con el olmo y el boj,
20 para que vean y entiendan, consideren y comprendan a una
que la mano del Señor ha hecho esto, que el Santo de Israel lo ha creado.

(Las Biblia de Las Americas)