Inspired by Monty Don and armed with spades, forks and gloves, several Goodgymers were put to task to plant a few more trees in Marston Forest Garden.

We followed a detailed step by step guide and demonstration provided by Anthony from the Forest Garden. This was to ensure the young trees would get the best start in life and provide tasty fruit for years to come. Clearing the top woodchip and digging out the soil was just the start...

The space should be a square, approximately 1 m square, and a spade length depth, ideally putting the dug-out soil onto cardboard pieces to prevent it getting mixed up with the woodchip. After removing any pesky bindweed or sturdy bramble roots, the young tree should be placed centrally with the roots just below the level of the ground (using a handy stake as a guide). Removing any large soil clumps, the finer soil can be added from the outside-in to fill in between the roots and to reduce the occurrence of any air pockets. Once all the soil is added, the soil should be compressed down, again from the outside-in. Cardboard is added on top and fresh woodchip added as mulch to aid early tree growth. As the trees were quite sturdy, no stakes were used but wiring was added around the outside to prevent local wildlife from getting a head start on eating the vegetation.

We planted several different types of trees, including pear, quince, plum and walnut trees plus others. We also cleared some more areas and started the process of adding wiring around the outside of the planted trees. The dog was also very helpful in keeping morale high and checking that we were following the precise tree planting instructions!

After all that hard work, it was time for cake: Colin the Caterpillar from Anwen, macaroons, gingerbread stars from Isabella from the Forest Garden volunteers and tasty flapjack made by Bethan. Cake is always welcome, particularly when building up such an appetite at the task, but the special occasion this time was to celebrate Ben getting married the day before! Thank you so much for the personalised Goodgym t-shirt and the card!!