10000 Children - 10000 Trees - For You

Tree planting in the UK is best done between October and March but global warming has meant that this usually colder time of year in the UK when the trees become dormant, allowing them to be safely transplanted from nursery to wood, has shortened.

National Tree Week is an annual ‘best time to plant a tree’ event at the end of November. Our schools’ planting fortnight is traditionally set to coincide with this week. From mid-November to early March is when we try to get all our trees planted… so what do we do in between times, you might be thinking.

Some of the trees for the coming planting season are already in nursery beds in schools across the town and surrounding villages as well as in the wood and on the community allotment - they need tending with regular weeding and mulching.

In the wood itself, we weed and mulch around the young hedgerows in particular and we begin the process of checking on the trees planted last year. Not all will have taken and the process of ‘beating up’ (replacing failed trees) starts in early summer as they break into leaf. We walk the rows to identify any that are not growing and tag them with red biodegradable tape. In the winter, when it can be difficult to tell a dormant tree from a dead one, we can see at a glance which trees to dig up and replace.

The wood grows not only trees; it has been sown with a native wild flower mix and this year we have undertaken a community-wide project to raise wild flowers from seed, concentrating on a selection aimed to introduce everyone from the youngest to the oldest to the flowers that thrive in our chalk downland landscape.

We work hard to introduce our work to a growing audience and to encourage people to get involved. The wild flower project is one way we have chosen to do this. In addition to this we have have also:

• Raised funds to buy composting toilets, meaning that chemical toilets are a thing of the past
• Run seasonal ‘Meet the Trees’ visits for 5 local schools to mature woodland on local Trinley Estate, supporting teachers to build outdoor learning and environmental education into their mainstream teaching programmes
• Hosted a community archaeological dig in the wood with archaeologists from Southampton University, unearthing clues to the history of the site dating back to the Bronze Age
• Welcomed 50 visitors to a summer open day to see the trees in the green and enjoy the wild flowers and butterflies

We hope that you have enjoyed this spring visit to Harmony Woods and the work of Andover Trees United. We are looking forward to and are already planning the upcoming November planting and, with your support, are on the way to achieving the funding we need. If you like our work, we hope that you will share it with others and help us to keep raising these much-needed funds.

Links:

• Reaching our target will help us retain an education officer
• Thanks to separate funding drive we now have composting toilets

Over the course of a week in the midst of this crowdfunding appeal, we finished the winter's tree planting in our community wood, travelled to London to meet Dr Jane Goodall and helped an amazing group of young people to deliver a training day about the climate crisis and what we can all do to help.

Over 3 morning sessions March 13th, 18th and 20th and supported by a wonderful team of volunteers, 120 children completed the winter's work, planting a mixture of beech, dogwood, willow and hawthorn  This planting saw the start of 100 metres of new native hedgerow, to be extended each year until the end of our woodland planting in 2021. 

In between planting days in the wood, on March 14th a group of 13 excited children, their teachers and Andover Trees United volunteers made the trip to The Barbican to take part in the UK Roots & Shoots Awards. The 'Andover Shoots', a group of 8-to-15 year olds from 3 of our schools, had the opportunity to stage a display of their environmental endeavours and have the privilege of explaining their work to Dr Jane Goodall in person - an unforgettable experience. And just to round off an already jam-packed few days, on March 19th we helped twelve 9-to-13 year olds to run a day's Plant-for-the-Planet Academy for 40 of their peers at our local Golf Club. They gave presentations about the climate crisis and what can be done to help, led games and oversaw the planting of another 70 trees.

What a week! And this is what your funds are making possible. With your support we can continue to keep tree planting, continue to provide these opportunities and continue to inspire young people to care for their planet. THANK YOU.