When the Bible talks about a garden, a grove, a wood, or about separate trees - olive, vine, cedar, poplar or oak, one could easily @ that was the end of the matter. But, in fact, garden, grove and wood mean wisdom, intelligence and knowledge. Olive, vine, cedar, poplar and oak mean various aspects of religious goodness and truth - celestial, spiritual, natural and sensual respectively. All the literal forestry is just so much scaffolding: it's the spiritual sense that matters.
Olive trees live for ages. they give oil with all its soothing properties, and the grain is very beautiful when carved and polished - a patient, loving tree. The vine, of course, is not massive - scarcely a tree at all, but lively and productive of wine - the sort of tree to make life worth living. The wonderfully scented cedar grows straight.' it knows where it's going, and can easily be sawn into manageable pieces - an intellectual sort of tree. The poplar likewise, fairly fast-growing, a no-nonsense tree; and the oak, strong, very serviceable and reassuring to the touch.
It's a fact: patients in hospitals with a green view need fewer painkillers after major surgery and recover more quickly than those looking onto buildings.
I read, and sigh, and wish I were a tree
For sure then I should grow
To fruit or shade; at least some bird would trust
Her household to me, and I should be just.
Trees provide a home for wildlife and somewhere natural for children to play.
A north-country maid up to London had stray'd
Although with her nature it did not agree;
She wept, and she sigh'd, and she bittery cried,
I wish once again in the north I could be.
"Oh! the oak, and the ash, and the bonny ivy tree,
They flourish at home in my own country."
Trees give shelter from wind, offer shade from the sun and help remove pollutants from the air.