Today we returned to Bramble Road to plant the last three remaining trees from our pre-Christmas order from Barcham’s nursery that have been stored on Eric’s drive since mid-January. Along with a few other trees sourced separately and some replacement trees provided by BDC and WTC, we have planted some 30 trees since the end of January; not bad for a small band of volunteers.
People often assume that as a community group we mainly plant small trees and whips and not the substantial 12 foot plus trees that we do plant and which is only made possible by the ongoing support from WTC. We do from time to time plant whips and small trees and will do our best to find a suitable location for trees donated to us but one of the advantages of planting sizeable trees is that we can protect them with wire mesh frames. That is to say protection against mainly vandalism as opposed to sheep, deer or rabbits!
We returned to Bramble Road because the original location we selected for planting revealed an impenetrable layer of hardcore about a spade depth beneath the soil. Whilst existence of underground utilities like gas, water and electricity can be verified from plans provided by the service companies, remnants of house or road building cannot, so we promptly abandoned this location (after filling back the holes) a little disappointed but not deterred.
So with the last of our pre-Christmas order we headed to Bramble Road and planted a hybrid whitebeam – Sorbus Thuringiaca Fastigiata and two field maples Acer Campestre William Caldwell. The whitebeam is leafing up nicely and also in bud and these buds will very soon produce clusters of creamy white flowers. Later in the autumn an abundance of red berries will remain on the tree well into the winter or until they are picked from the tree by the birds. We have opted for several field maples this year because not only do they have good autumn colour, they are as tough as old boots and have good drought tolerance too. (Nearly every hole we dug this season, the soil was remarkably dry.)
And finally, having spotted a good half dozen house martins flying over the alders by Chipping Hill Bridge this morning I can confirm that summer is finally here; despite the bitterly cold weather these last few days!
Jane Noble
April 2019
