It was a difficult year for tree planting with the peak of the pandemic in the UK in January and February coinciding with the tree planting season making it difficult to organise some plantings. We concentrated our efforts on a handful of larger projects which we could complete in a covid safe environment.
The majority of the planting carried out by ourselves was on farms and other locations where we have kindly been offered land to use. Here’s a summary of the main projects where we are planting trees on private land:
Claremont Farm in Bebington on the Wirral – where we planted 80 Damson trees on a half acre of waste ground.
Gandeys circus HQ – an interesting project at the HQ of Gandey’s Circus in Arclid where we have been allowed to plant trees on a site of several acres which are looking forward to developing over the coming years. We started with two oak trees and 25 Damson trees and will be adding apples, pears and various other trees over coming seasons.
Land off Sugar Lane Adlington – We have planted around 40 Damson trees in a new hedge off Sugar Lane in Adlington. We are working with the land owners to develop the large site and also planted around 60 wild cherry, hornbeam and elderflower from Forestry Commission surplus trees.
Kings School Macclesfield – another large scale project we will develop over the coming years where we planted seven grafted apple trees, 12 damsons, and the beginnings of a wildlife hedge using ten local elderflower from cuttings we propagated and 45 sloe saplings from an ancient hedge at Claremount farm.
We donated a trees to several landowners and community groups including:
Platt Fields market garden in Fallowfield where we donated 30 damson and 20 mixed plum and Greengage. These will be planted at Platt Fields and other public parks around South Manchester.
Our old geography teacher John Percival who is Tree warden for Marton was given ten damson three greengage and three plum to plant around the village and we hope to collaborate with him more over the coming years as he is a commitment local conservationist.
We continued our collaboration with Birgit who runs the Lifestyle centre at Macclesfield Leisure centre which works with people with learning difficulties, Birgit has been working with the guys there to create a community forest garden. After mulching and pulling weeds around trees we planted two years ago we added eight more mixed plum and damson, in years to come the fruit will be free for the community to pick.
We donated 30 Damsons and a selection of surplus forestry commission trees to John from Hilltop farm in Wincle where he is planting new hedgerows.
We donated six Damson and two Greengage to a group planting a community orchard in Ellesmere Port with funding from Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots Charity.
It seems the whole world is getting on the tree planting mission and we have several projects lined up for next year!