Last year we worked successfully with Eastlight to provide 17 new trees on the Allectus Way estate. This year we continued that partnership by planting 13 trees on the Forest Road estate. Eastlight meets the cost of the trees and, with the agreement of Witham Town Council (WTC), the Tree Group meets the cost of supporting and caging the trees from funds provided by WTC for this purpose.
Some of the trees, which were planted on 9 and 16 December, replaced trees which were planted in recent years by contractors to Eastlight or its predecessor, Greenfields, and which had failed to thrive. We shall of course be watering and maintaining the new trees and are confident that the new trees will not go the way of the old.
The trees are mostly in small groups along Forest Road itself, except for two located in roads off Forest Road. The soil proved variable, though the only problematic site was the area just beyond the end of Laburnum Way, where the deep and sodden clay provided a real challenge. All the trees are now in and we will watch with interest how they develop in the different planting conditions.
Richard Hawkes
December 2021
