A Summer of Success – in numbers
As autumn well and truly closes in, and the daylight hours shorten, let’s take a look at how the warmer (although not particularly drier) months went in the Silk Wood Community Planting Project.
Between April and October, the focus has been on looking after the 3,300 trees that were planted the previous winter to ensure they did well –the results of our beat-up survey certainly showed it was worth it (read about that here).
This work mainly included weeding around the young saplings - pulling the rampant thistles, brambles, hemp-agrimony and willowherb which would compete with the young trees for resources such as nutrients and water in the soil, to give them the space to grow.
The other vital element was to spread mulch around the trees, about 3 inches thick and a metre across. This helps to suppress the ‘weeds’ from growing, and helps the soil to retain moisture during dry spells. A lot of that mulch was sourced from chipped ash that had to be felled on the site, so at least something from the devastation of ash dieback is contributing towards helping build this new resilient woodland.
To help with this monumental task, were joined by a total of 397 volunteers from 16 returning groups – made up of local primary schools, mental health support groups, refugee support charities, environmental youth groups, Special Educational Needs schools and colleges, and support groups for adults with learning difficulties.
Over just 18 days, collectively they shifted 1,023 wheelbarrows of mulch – which works out at nearly 35 tonnes – and spread it around 2,045 trees! This all contributed to the incredible 97% survival rate.
Alongside the tree-care days the groups have also attended wellbeing, art, and activity days – which included how to measure a tree to see how much carbon it can store, and how to identify different species.
David a volunteer with visiting group Stroud Valley Project said “I’m here today to identify trees and take all the weeds away, and looking at all this is amazing! It’s going to look really good in the future, because that’s one of the most important things, for other people to come and see what we’ve done.”
We couldn’t agree more and want to say a massive thank you to everyone who contributed to these monumental numbers, helping achieve such a successful summer’s work before planting season kicks off again!
