Bishop’s Meadow in Farnham was put up for sale at the end of 2009. Four local people who were worried about the threat of development got together and raised enough money to buy the land and it’s now managed by the Bishop’s Meadow Trust as green space for everyone to enjoy. On Saturday I volunteered to help plant trees here. These photos aren’t the greatest as they were taken on my phone with muddy hands! Here’s how we got on…
It was a foggy walk through the meadow to the meeting point. The man below is one of the other volunteers; he was taking a walk while waiting for everyone else to arrive.
The Woodland Trust recently donated lots of trees to the Bishop’s Meadow Trust. We had a mixture including birch, hawthorn and crap apple and the one poking me in the face is willow.
Look at the colour of these leaves!
Planting the trees was straightforward. We used canes to mark planting locations, dug a hole, put the tree in the ground, covered it with soil and placed a spiral tree guard over the top. Sounds easy but the ground was heavy clay soil and digging was hard work. I definitely need to step up the pie eating so I have more weight behind the spade!
I think we planted about 140 trees together in a couple of hours.
It’s nice to think that in a few years time these trees will be well on their way towards becoming a wooded area and I’ll have helped plant them!
If you are thinking about volunteering you can find out more information on the BMT volunteering page.
Oh how great is this? I love it when people are passionate enough to stand up and make a difference – jolly good on you for supporting them and getting stuck in!
It was good fun and the fog made me feel like I was back in Norway!