Heartwood tree planting, 19 March 2011

Posted by Amanda on Mar 23, 2011 in Blog, Out and about, Plants and gardening | 0 comments

‘At Heartwood Forest near Sandridge, St Albans, the creation of England’s largest new native forest is well underway. We have  ambitious plans to create an 858 acre woodland with a total of 600,000 newly planted trees, all planted by volunteers. There will also be a community orchard, new wildflower meadows, open spaces and miles of footpaths and bridleways created over a 10 year period.’ – this from the Woodland Trust website.

We were keen to help plant this exciting new woodland, so Steve and I turned up on Saturday morning armed with our spades and planted 150 new trees, including oak, beech, viburnum and hornbeam.  The weather was amazingly sunny and it attracted volunteers of all ages. It had the atmosphere, warmth and sounds of people enjoying themselves on a beach – no car sounds, just the productive, absorbing and pleasingly repetitve digging and planting of trees. Many people had brought picnics and made a day of it. The field was full of dogs, babies, children, teenagers, adults and grandparents – all taking part in this wonderful event.