Seeds of doubt

No, no, not with me and the boy, but I know you were thinking it!

We live in a new estate and there's construction going on all around us - new roads/new houses being built. Most of the roads and roundabouts have big trees planted on them. Our street is tiny and the lots are on the small side - three houses on our side (plus two corner houses being built now), none on the other side. So far, we have no trees in our street. I assume it's because the council is waiting for the other houses to be built. There are two empty lots across the road from us, but it doesn't look like those houses are going to be built any time soon.

Anyway, the estate developer is always sending us paraphernalia about what's going on, new land releases etc. There are even ads on tv now that say, "Save your marriage. Move to (our suburb)", which we find rather amusing.

On Monday, we received a fold out brochure in the mail box about a new land release. In it was a little packet of seeds. We thought this was good, because we've been wondering when they were going to do something like that (Council is supposed to give you a free native tree when you move in). Then we read the small print...

Enclosed seeds are real River Red Gum seeds.
Care should be taken when planting these seeds.
Seeds should not be planted under power lines or near your house, as the root system of River Red Gum trees is extensive.
Seed advice from your local nursery when planting.
(Developer) take no responsibility for seeds planted.
Seeds should not be consumed.

Here’s a picture, to give you an idea of the size of this tree.

We wondered why in the world they'd send us seeds for trees that we can't plant near our house, or on the street (where are we supposed to plant them?) and that could damage the house if we do plant them.

Wouldn't the smarter thing have been to actually send us something smaller and more practical that we could plant in or around our house?

What's that old adage?....Seemed like a good idea at the time...