Trees for Cities
The only UK charity working at a national and international scale to improve lives by planting trees in cities.
We get stuck in with local communities to cultivate lasting change in their neighbourhoods – whether it’s revitalising forgotten spaces, creating healthier environments or getting people excited about growing, foraging and eating healthy food.25 GoodGymers have supported Trees for Cities with 5 tasks.
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Digging for Vic-tree!
Wednesday 16th September 2020
Written by Callum
A group of 5 of us met at Elthorne park in the scorching heat to help Trees For Cities plant the final two trees in their three week long work at the park. They've been planting a variety of nut trees and there were just two pine trees left, so we got to work!
We split into two groups with Jane, Harvey and Michelle working on one and with Milly and Callum on the other. First we needed to dig quite a big, flat hole that could accommodate the base of the tree, all the while trying to remove large bits of rubbish and stone from the earth. We then fetched some topsoil and mixed in some fertiliser powder to help the trees thrive and then planted the tree in it. After that, we put the remaining soil we had previously excavated on the sloped-side of the tree to keep water from flowing too far away and put a protective layer of mulch on top!
With that, all that remained was to take a few photos and to name the trees: the first group settled on Sylvester while the other was named Pinocchio. In the next few years we'll be able to look back and actually eat the nuts that grow on these lovely trees when they've grown up a bit!
Life’s a beech
Tuesday 15th September 2020
Written by Liv Parker-Scott
What a September scorcher we had today when 5 GoodGym members met in the midday 30 degree heat to help plant trees in Elthorne Park with Trees for Cities.
We started by welcoming Miranda to her first ever GoodGym session and Louisa who was joining GoodGym Ealing for the first time - I hope we see you both again soon!
We had two trees to plant today, one beech and one walnut. So we split into two teams and got digging!
Team beech:
It was rubble trouble for team beach and our hole digging mainly consisted of old builders rubbles, bricks and MASSIVE rocks. It was definitely a hard workout and the Trees for Cities team said it was the worst hole they've dug in their time here. But determined to get the job done myself and Jenni worked hard for an hour to make a home for the new beech tree!
Team Walnut:
They named their tree Wally the Walnut and seemed to have a slightly easier job getting their hole dug but did have the tough job of getting the stakes into the ground to support the tree. Miranda, Louisa and Michelle proved teamwork makes the dream work with a brilliant final result!
Two trees planted and we really look forward to seeing them grow and flourish for years to come. Look out for GoodGym watering tasks on the horizon!
