More than sixty thousand acorns and hundreds of thousands of native tree seeds have been hand-scattered by local children across eight acres of the site last week.
A special local schools week saw nearly 400 five and six-year-old children taking part from 9 local primary schools.
Hand picked oak acorns formed the bulk of the planting but the children also scattered hundreds of thousands of smaller seeds from ash to birch, field maple, hawthorn, blackthorn, hornbeam, hazel and dogrose.
This will give a dense woodland dominated by oak with a good shrub understorey and a random, natural appearance. It also means we will have no protective tubes to dispose of or expensive rabbit fencing to erect!
Probably more importantly it allowed the younger, smaller school children to come along and help us create Heartwood Forest. Handling the spades and digging the holes can sometimes be a little difficult for this age group but seed sowing is just perfect for them.
We’re looking foward to seeing the results over the years!
Fantastic news – well done the Woodland Trust !
Great to see it continue to develop
That’s a lovely idea again to scatter the seeds, especially acorns – shall be interested to see how this random planting turns out. I love Dog Rose. Bet the kids enjoyed it. I wish we lived nearer to Heartwood Forest but will see the photos. All the best, Angela.