A second planting of the year saw over 500 saplings join the 400 already in the ground at the new four-acre woodland between Wardour and Tisbury.
by Chris Harwood.

The weather was kind to the 34 enthusiastic tree-planters who came to the new woodland this October, many of whom were returnees from the March planting and had come to see how their saplings had settled in to the new surroundings. It was good to see a number of children there, sincerely interested in planting trees. It is their future for which we are fighting.
We planted saplings suitable for the current climate in southwest England (oak, sweet chestnut, silver birch and beech) and others to help biodiversity loss (apple, wild cherry, hazel, lime, Canadian maple, sycamore, walnut and hawthorn). Some were bought from the Woodland Trust using grant money, some had been grown from last autumn’s tree seed, and some had been donated by neighbours via www.nextdoor.com.

The centrepiece was a six-year-old oak, which had been grown in a large pot. We planted it in the middle of the new wood that we are creating and have called it the Queen’s Tree in memory of Her Late Majesty.