Green Memorials and Cemeteries

If you are looking for a place in nature where you can have your ashes interred or spread underneath a tree while still being able to leave a memorial, check out the green memorials and cemeteries. You can purchase an individual spot or a family spot underneath a tree and even include your pets if you desire. These back to nature plots are like a small forest where you can purchase a family tree.

The Family Tree
Purchasing a spot underneath one of the trees will give you a nice memorial location for the ashes of your whole family. You can chose to spread your ashes on the ground there or have them buried in the urn. If you purchase your own family spot, your pet's ashes can be interred there as well. Single people don't have to worry because they also have communal trees where you can purchase the space for just one to be shared by others.

Memorials
You can select from many different kinds of memorial marker once you purchase a spot from a green memorial park or cemetery. Something you can't leave behind if you decide to have your ashes spread in a National Park or Forest. Here, if tastefully done, they are a welcome addition to the site. Try and select something that lasts but fits well with the natural look of a green memorial park.

Places like the Ramsey Creek preserve in South Carolina use GPS to find unmarked graves for the relatives. They also allow picnicking and hiking on the preserve. At the Lakeview Memorial Cemetery in Utah, deer and other animals freely roam among the oak and maple trees in a natural environment. Greensprings in New York provides meadows and woodlands filled with native trees and shrubs. Here you chose your own plants to help re-populate the land. As you can see, you have many different green places to chose from if you prefer a purchased site over a public site.

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Do I need a Cremation Casket?

In the not-too-distant future, you could be cremated wrapped in banana leaves as people look for more ways to lower the burial costs and make it greener. Because of the economic problems and no signs of quick relief, casket manufacturers are looking for new ways to produce a casket that is either burned during cremation or used for just a short amount of time before cremation of the body.

Families that didn't look at cremation in the past are now considering it because of its much lower cost. The option that costs the least amount for a family wanting to cremate their loved one is to use a cardboard box which is cremated along with the body. However, this means that you must have a memorial service or wait until you receive the cremated remains back to hold your celebration of their life. A lot of families are opting to just have a memorial service using items from their loved one's life to represent them.

Another option for your family is to rent a casket with a removable liner. This is more expensive that the first option but still cheaper than buying a casket. The liner is removed along with the body as they both head to the crematorium. The casket can then be rented to the next family for a funeral service. Some families don't want their loved one laying in a casket theat was previously used by another person.

Why can't you just use a wood casket? Well, you can but a solid wood casket still takes a long time to burn at added costs for the cremation. Hard woods look the best but soft woods burn the best. So, which do you select? Well, casket manufacturers are helping you out here. They are making a casket of cheaper compressed wood with nice looking hard wood veneer so the casket looks great and burns quickly.

Today, you have many more options to chose from when deciding to be cremated instead of having a traditional burial. The important part is to honor your loved one, celebrate their life, and let them go out in style. Read a poem and tell a story that reminds you of the joy you had sharing life with them. After all, it is their memory that is precious not the way we bury them.

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