Surprises come in many sizes. What rolled out of its mailing box first looked like a tennis ball on diet – or perhaps a golf ball over-indulging in carbs. But the leaflet with it from the Britt Lawson at McKenzie inquired: “Have you grown your clean air today?”
Turns out these made-in-Canada ‘Clean Air Tree Kits’ are 100% biodegradable and compostable. The neat ball-shaped container, made from potato waste and corn starch resin, contains white spruce seed embedded in Jiffy soil, a Jiffy cup and growing instructions.
With the purchase of each World Clean Air Forest Initiative (WCLAI) Air Tree Kit, a unique PIN code is provided for online registration. With each kit purchased, an additional tree will be planted somewhere around the globe by one of the WCAFI planting partners.
You want to do something to help free, fresh air? Open up the kit and plant away. Later, it can go outside. The white spruce is a needle-bearing evergreen that grows well in a variety of soils.
Ah, one thing Britt hasn’t told us: the size and speed white spruce can grow under conditions it really,
really likes. Twenty years might seem long but 40-feet isn’t, although we have known one to make that height in the time. But that’s Toronto for you.
Lesson: don’t plant too close to the house. In fact, don’t plant near anything at all. A corner of the back garden perhaps, or how about at your school? Now
there’s a way to clean the air.
