As we’ve reported before, last year we signed up to participate in the Woodland Trust’s Big Climate Fightback campaign, a project to plant millions of trees all around the UK as a response to climate change.

In March 2023, we received 420 little trees/shrubs; a colourful mix of hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, rowan and crab-apple. We are very happy to say that they are now all pretty well established and enjoying their new home around the perimeter of our Gardens. It looks like they all made it, and have grown from being around 20cm high when they arrived, to around 35cm or 45cm now. It’s amazing.

And what is even more amazing, is that we have now received another 420 trees! This time it’s a mix of elder, wild cherry, dogwood, blackthorn rose and silver birch. We have already started planting these new arrivals, again around the perimeter, reinforcing various sections and creating a richer biodiverse environment all around. As we did with the first batch, we are planting them at around five trees per metre, which will hopefully give us a very thick lower hedge in a few years: most will be maintained as compact shrubs, but selected trees will be left to grow taller.

Trees have many benefits, including locking up carbon, reducing pollution and flooding, and supporting people and wildlife in adapting to changes in temperature and weather. Markwick Gardens is very important as the “natural lungs” of our community, and we should all be proud of that.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Big Climate Fightback and the impact of trees on our life, check out the Woodland Trust website.