Tiny Forest, Giant Inspiration

By the time I’d finished my postgraduate course in climate change last year, I’d heard a lot about the power of “bottom-up approaches” and “grass roots initiatives” for solving big environmental problems – and this week I think I finally twigged (sorry!) what that means. So much positive energy in the air at the Tiny Forest in Ladywell Fields as 180 more saplings were planted during two muddy sessions including local residents, park users and schoolchildren from Gordonbrock Primary, as well as GoodGymers Phil, Sander, Emma and myself.

This was a satisfying conclusion to several weeks of ambitious teamwork (youngest contributor just three years old, eldest well over pension age!), achieved using nothing more than determination and a small grant from a Lewisham nature conservation fund. After three cheerful hours, we’d helped to give homes to a mix of native tree species, installed a generous layer of wood chippings as mulch around their slender trunks and put up protective fencing… doing a whole lot of good for our community and our planet – and, if my own mood is anything to go by, it was all pretty good for our mental wellbeing too.

These new saplings will be well settled once the growing season starts next spring, extending the Tiny Forest by 60 square metres and boosting its contribution to carbon capture and biodiversity gains for months and years ahead. For more details of the Ladywell team’s involvement in the nationwide Tiny Forest initiative, see this article in last week’s Sunday Times.