No practical jokes for this April Fool’s Day…

Fortunately this morning the rain held off and we gathered on the pathway below Petersham Road for another session on tree planting.

Today we started with oak and hornbeam trees, looking for spaces with limited tree cover to allow plenty of light for the oak in particular, and ensuring a good space between each.

We used the slot planting technique, making sure to get all the roots under the soil but not too deep, the biggest challenge being to achieve this on the fairly steep bank up from the pathway.

After finishing with the first lot of trees, we moved on to smaller trees to provide nesting spots for birdlife. These could be planted closer together and we got through 3 buckets in very short order.

All told we planted 175 trees in the session, a very satisfying way to start the weekend!