Thanks to an email from the Friends of East Greenwich Pleasaunce, I was able to participate in some tree planting this fine January day.
Arriving at the Pleasaunce at 1pm I found a group of ten fellow planters including FEGP chair Matthew Wall, Gavin and Anne of Transition Westcombe and David and Lewis from The London Orchard Group who were there to provide the technical know-how.
David and Lewis showed us in two stages how to plant the six trees, “three apple trees, a plum, a gage, and a pear”, did the first one for us, and then assisted with the rest.
My tree planting partner Zoe marks out the square of turf that needs removing
Hole dug! My Dad and his girlfriend would be proud!
Zoe poses for a funny photo AKA packing down the removed turf before planting our tree
Fellow planter Nigel loosens the soil with a metal stake (technical name anyone?) so he can dig his hole
Holes dug, trees planted, hessian cover applied, time for the next stage: stakes, mulch, nails, hammers and cages
David and Zoe bang a stake into the ground, Zoe and I banged in the other, the metal stake banger thing is heavy! Hard hat time just in case your head gets knocked!
Zoe holds the cage, Gavin nails the cage together. Manliness proved
Nigel and his planted tree, the mulch was provided free of charge by the Parks and Gardens department of Greenwich Council, nice!
Zoe and I anoint our planted tree with cider as part of the New Year tradition of wassailing…
…but we didn’t sing, we left that to David!
Happy planters one and all!
………
Paul Ruffle
Cool tree planting. We have 100 to plant next week at Owlers in West Yorkshire. Want to lend a hand?
Lara Ruffle
I thought you had over 200 to plant! No thanks! 😀
Jen
That looks fun!! I just discovered the Pleasaunce on Friday and am writing about it on my blog. I’m going to link this post. And small world, I know one of those guys from work- Steve is his name, I’m pretty sure!
Lara Ruffle
Hi Jen, what is the address for your blog? 🙂