Planting Young Trees – First meeting
| Convenor: Philip Evans | Vacancies | First Notice 21 Nov 2019 |
Saving Wild Young Trees
Join this project if you care about saving trees and planting them out. We have so far collected around 30 very young trees, from two-leaf to two foot. We need native trees found wild, such as Oak, Ash, Hornbeam, Birch, Hawthorn, Holly etc.
We intend to plant them where they are needed, in town, country or road verge.
We met for the first time to talk about what we could do and how we could do it. It was agreed that those who had space should each get one tree planted in the next month. Two members left carrying saplings – oak and wild cherry. The Woodland Trust, which is offering free trees on its web-site, was to be contacted: we shall alert them, and apply for their tree saplings when we are ready with a good site*. When we have bought stakes and protectors we shall apply to the Beccles U3A for the small funding for that expenditure. We agreed that we should keep an eye out for possible sites for trees. It was suggested that anyone having social contacts with a farmer should explore possibilities ! Next meeting – 2nd March 2020, at Bensteads Farm NR35 1TP
- Being ready means this:– Young trees survive much better if planted out in wet months – of course ! That means NOW ! Each tree has to be (i) dug in a good spit and a half with a good spreading of the roots; a small scattering of mycorrizal fungi to form a secondary root system supporting the young tree for life; (ii) with a strong vertical cane, of sapling height or more, staking both the sapling and the tree protector (cardboard), (iii) a strong angled stake to tree and protector, angled at around 60 degrees on the windward side of the young tree; (iv) with a tall cane or hedge stick stuck in to mark where the young tree is, when surrounding vegetation grows up in Summer. This cane needs to be at least 6ft tall, and some people put a splash of white paint on the top of it .
If you are interested in joining this group, please email Philip or Gillian via the bird or call us on 01986 895113