Free trees?

caroline1973lefty

i don't know your area but in london there are various permaculture projects and tree nurseries that sometimes give away free trees or hedging to local community projects, so maybe you could seek these out. i googled for you and birmingham actually doesn't seem to have that much permaculture stuff going on for some reason, but perhaps the local transition town network could point you to some good local garden projects? and could also advise you on how wildlife friendly your ideas are. sound good to me though! my residents association got some funding to buy some fruit trees which we planted on land that didn't belong to us, as well as doing various bits of 'guerilla gardening' on surrounding streets. there was problems about getting access in the end but that doesn't sound like a problem in your case. getting funding always ties you to the funders objectives though so if you can get free trees, so much the better. HTH

darkpool

you should be able to buy trees from a commercial nursery for about 40 pence. if you don't want to do that you could always get some acorns and beech mast and just scatter them? some are likely to take

celerity

I would echo checking with the landowner / council. People get quite funny with trees, for example, some woodland conservationists have a deep-rooted (ahem) hatred of sycamore. Also, councils can be wary of fruit trees creating a vermin problem. I'm not saying either of these two examples are applicable in the OP's case, it is just a general word of caution.

edit: also, I have to confess I clicked on this thread thinking it was about blagging free fuel for a wood stove

/\dam

Deep_Ocean

Thanks to all for you replies and advise. My apologies to Celerity in the disappointment of this thread

I contacted Woodland trust who seem keen to help, so I will contact the council as WT echoed what some of you guys have said. This is the reply I received.

"We'd be happy to get involved with a project on site - we run a scheme providing free trees to community groups and any groups would be welcome to apply to help develop the site. However, it is the responsibility of the landowner to manage the site and you cannot undertake any work without their permission. You've not made it clear in your email if you've discussed anything with them and we cannot support any projects without their consent.

If the landowner wishes to contact us for advice they're welcome to do so, and we'll help where we can.

Kind regards,

Emilie"

Deep_Ocean

darkpool wrote: »

you should be able to buy trees from a commercial nursery for about 40 pence.

I wondered if you could expand on this suggestion. I have searched Google and have not stumbled across any nurseries which are so reasonably priced. Do you have any links?

Thanks for the post

darkpool

if you google "cell grown trees" and your county you should have more luck.

i would suggest that if there are no existing saplings on the land there could be a reason for it. perhaps there are voles/ rabbits/ deer in the area?

if there are a lot of herbivores in the area you will need to protect your trees. to get a tubex tree shelter and stake will cost about two pounds.

since you don't own the land i would experiment first before you start spending money. this autumn gather up plenty acorns/ chestnuts then scatter them on the land. if they take i would then start buying trees. if they get nibbled you will need tree shelters.