Fall color is a real gateway love. It is one of the first reasons many of us learn to love trees. Tree people and those who do not yet know they are tree people alike, wait for these sweater days when we are enveloped in color.

2020 Foot Path over the mound of clover, on the way to Field Temple across the street. Shagbark Hickory yellowing beyond the Red Maples.

Trees in the fall are soulful fireworks. Unlike cheap, common fireworks they are a celebration that is universal, one that connects us to our true mother, nature. They touch us so deeply, first, because of their sheer magnitude. We are not talking cheap garish blasts in the sky here; we’re talking about whole forests filling latitudes with reds, oranges, yellows, and rusts as far as the eye can see. And we don’t just buy them when we want and blow them off when we want. There will be no obnoxious blasts that leave them screaming for another and another. We wait patiently, anxiously, expectantly through the year for them to arrive on their own time to unfold slowly across the landscape. These fireworks suspend time, and for a change we are asking time to slow down. We want fall to last long like memories.

Best of all, they flush into radiance in complete silence. It’s a miracle every time- soulful, not surface. They reach us so deeply and incomparably. They will never wake your baby or scare your dog. They do not intrude on everyone else’s night, or morning for that matter. Silence seems so underrated these days.

Paper Birches and Native Wildflowers in Treetroit 1 - a couple of boulders peeking through

It’s also true that we can, but don’t have to, visit the forest to witness it. We bring the forest to our own gardens and front yards. We set these stages for the annual pageant. I added a few more scarlet Oaks and Sugar Maples near enough to the house to delight me all day.

Fall color is free, and we all have a front row seat. It’s the height of nature, accessible to all without really doing anything, unless we want to. In which case plant a tree, or a couple hundred, to heighten the effect. Bring some fall color to your garden, to your house, to your street. Pay it forward this fall and you will be delighted for the rest of your life.

Treetroit 1 - Red Maples planted last year, and the Spruces that used to flank the house that stood there once. Yellowing Honey Locusts on the street, planted in the 80’s perhaps.

A bench is an invitation to take a load off, an invitation to pause. If you have time to use a bench you’re in good shape. This means you have time to be, time to contemplate, time to observe. I support this. I promise that when you put a bench in the shade life gets a little bit better.

Find a beautiful but underutilized spot in your yard, find a bench or make one, sit. Watch what happens. You will see more and appreciate more- you will see your own life from a slightly different perspective. Give a gift to yourself and those you love.

If you do not have a shady place for your bench you will need to first plant a tree, or plant several. This is good- trees make quick shade if we let them. At this time more than ever we see that we need a bench in our yard. Think it over for a moment and then make a commitment to make a park in your yard.

Start by taking a walk around the yard. Bring a folding chair and test some vantage points- test drive some shade. If you find that you need some more shade, shop trees. Look around at your neighborhood when you’re out for a walk. Which trees do you love? You can have one of those too, I promise. Do some research and see various specimens of this same tree at different stages and in different settings. See what conditions she likes.

Get ready to plant a tree, place a bench, and enjoy the park in your yard. Build a daily taste of retirement into your schedule. Watch the trees grow. Retire every day to the park in your yard and watch the seasons change from your front row seat. We all have season tickets- don’t forget to use them.

The bench at Treetroit 1 has become a centering point for lots of neighbors. More benches / more time to sit.

People are finding the bench and the Arb. This is really exciting. This gentleman, Mike, comes way across town to sit here. He tells me it's his second favorite spot after Belle Isle. And then his friends showed up- they met up here. And the one guy is about to turn 90.

Wawyeyawen is a word that means “circle” in the Potawatomi language, the nation whose unceded territory Detroit is built on. Wawyeto means “circle we make.” 

We had a fantastic 50th Earth Day! So many beautiful people came out to plant so many beautiful trees. Because the treescape we created is so large we were all able to collaborate while keeping our personal distance. Most of us were so eager to just be outside doing something, and seeing people that the cold temperature didn’t matter. We had to expand the design to allow for 10 more tree planters to participate. We completed the circle with the Beeches, Sycamores, Dawn Redwoods, and Red Maples, then expanded to include three Siver Lindens on each side, a corner planting of a River Birch and two Cedars, and two Arbor Vitae. Before we left birds were stopping in the trees to check it out. Where there was once only mowed grass there is a small organized grove calling, “land here, land here!” This is perfect too because this treescape connects the Aqrboretum to Callahan Playfield, which is now a bird park created with the energies of the Detroit Audubon Society.

This planting is not formally part of the Arboretum, but is adjacent to Treetroit 1. This planting came about when the owner of these three lots mentioned his intention to return them to the Potawatomi. I thought this could really give us something to think about on this monumental Earth Day, right? What state would the Earth be in if there were no European colonization of this land? The next thought was can we return them better than we found them? I don’t mean better than they were originally, but better than they are now and have been for decades. So, we offer this land with a giant ring of trees that will be a habitat and a place of reflection. We do not yet know what giving these lots back looks like in a bureaucratic and legal sense, but we do know that we have made our offering and created a thing of beauty, a symbol of life and love for Mother Earth. I can already imagine what this space will look like on the 100th Earth Day.

We designed a treescape that we hope will help passersby for generations consider trees a little more than if the trees were in simple rows or clusters. One sees the circle and feels invited to step into the empty space created. We are very excited to watch the various forms grow together. For this scape we created a 70 foot diameter circle of equally spaced trees. We chose 70 because this was the year that the first Earth Day was globally celebrated. This also made the quarters 50 feet between the anchor trees. Of course, this was the 50th Earth Day.

For more information on Unceded Territories and their acknowledgment, see https://native-land.ca/territory-acknowledgement/

“If we think of territorial acknowledgments as sites of potential disruption, they can be transformative acts that to some extent undo Indigenous erasure. I believe this is true as long as these acknowledgments discomfit both those speaking and hearing the words. The fact of Indigenous presence should force non-Indigenous peoples to confront their own place on these lands.” – Chelsea Vowel, Métis, Beyond Territorial Acknowledgements

———— Photographs by Garrett MacLean (standing on top of Bat Mountain) ———