Today, as part of the “Give the City a Tree” campaign, 12 new trees donated by residents were planted in Ivan Franko Park. These are magnolias, cherry trees, oaks, and columnar elm. In total, 67 different trees were planted in different locations of the city as part of the campaign this fall.
So, today in Ivan Franko Park, next to the gardener’s house, a bouquet of three Black Tulip magnolias was planted by caring Lviv women: the head of the NGO “Lviv Association of Realtors” Nina Benyakh, whose husband and son are now on the front line; People’s Deputy Natali Pipa and Deputy Head of the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the LMR Oksana Lutsko. And near the playground, a columnar elm was planted by the mayor’s wife, art critic Kateryna Kit-Sadova. As every year, activist Ulyana Bazar made her contribution – a common oak. The benefactors also presented cherry blossoms, a cypress tree, and a maple-sycamore to the park.
Today’s tree planting concluded the “Give the City a Tree” charity event of the City Department of Ecology and Natural Resources. Thanks to such an action, for the second year in a row, all those willing had the opportunity to participate in the city’s seasonal tree planting and plant their own plant together with Lviv gardeners.
“Every season, we announce an opportunity for residents to plant a tree. Previously, activists and I collected funds to plant trees, but now it has turned into such an action that there is a person who wants to plant a specific tree, and together we choose a place where this tree will be planted. A person buys a sapling, and we bring it and plant it – so that everything is of the highest quality. In the fall, we planted about 60 trees as part of the campaign, and in the spring, even under difficult conditions, we planted 40 trees,” said Oleksandra Sdadkova, head of the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Lviv City Council.
Very often people want to plant magnolias, paradise apples, cherry trees, and oaks. “There are people who want to plant a big tree, and there are also people who want a small tree. But the majority want the tree to be such that it will live for a very long time, preferably 100 years, it is desirable that it outlives everyone and pleases the descendants,” Oleksandra Sladkova adds.
In addition to this campaign, about 100 trees were planted in the city as part of the “greening of Ukraine” this year. Developers planted about 700 more trees in the city. Also, special attention was paid to flower beds this year.
“This year, we decided to pay special attention to flower beds. Also, the Honorary Consulate of the Netherlands in Ukraine presented the city with 125,000 tulips, which we planted throughout the Lviv community. That is, there will be flower beds with Dutch tulips in every settlement. For example, in Franka Park there are 10 such arrays of tulips, as well as about 55 flowerbeds with perennial plants.
Flowerbeds with perennial plants are very important. Annual plants need constant weeding, watering, they are very capricious and simply require catastrophic expenses for their maintenance. Flowerbeds with perennials need care for the first two years, and then they only need to be trimmed a little and care for them is minimal: watering once every two weeks. Actually, this is such an investment that the city has made now so that it will work in the following years,” explains Oleksandra Sladkova, head of the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Lviv City Council.
By the way, the city hall will do such actions in the future as well, because it is interested in residents directly participating in the landscaping of their city and making it better and more beautiful.