Trees for Seaford Tree Trail
Wow! This month our multi-skilled Trees for Seaford volunteers have been branching out all over the place! After last month’s article we were delighted to get some ideas for our planned ‘Heritage Tree Trail’ and are really enjoying stories about people’s favourite trees. Do keep sending these in – we really want to hear your stories and ideas, and see your photographs.
Tree Care
Our community group has been lucky to get input and advice from local and national tree experts. Following this advice, we decided to pilot woodchip mulch for some of our saplings, in our monthly tree care session. Using a mulch of woodchip, bark or compost should help retain moisture, prevent competition from grasses and really boost growth in young trees. Thanks so much to Climpson Bros tree surgeons for the free woodchip and Seaford Town Council for ongoing support... and of course our hard-working volunteer members, who were joined this month by some new town councillor members. We’ll monitor the trees to see how well the woodchip is retained in a street tree setting, and if practical, will use this method for new plantings or where trees need a bit of extra help. Would you like to know more about getting trees in your road, or joining in? Do check out this great little video on our website which explains more about what we are doing, and how you can help. https:// treesforseaford.wordpress.com/join-us/
Climate Fair
In early August we were all busy at the A Greener Seaford Climate and Eco Fair. Many thanks to Seaford Environmental Alliance, for organising this fantastic event. It was wonderful to meet so many people passionate about planting trees, wild flowers and hedges, and learn about other groups working in Seaford to improve our environment. At the event we rehomed a number of trees, enjoyed some rather lovely homemade tree-shaped biscuits and talked a lot about the benefits of trees.
Our partner volunteer group On the Verge was also incredibly busy, talking to people about our pilot nature streets, our work with the council to increase diversity in our verges and green spaces, not to mention our bug hunts and planned wildflower counts. Lots of wildflower seeds and plants were swapped or given away so we look forward to more flowers and more pollinators and wildlife appearing round Seaford in the coming year! Up in the children’s field, some of our volunteers ran a workshop to paint our famous pebble creatures, to help encourage everyone to look for wildlife in our verges and gardens! We also spotted a bug hunt going on in the longer grass, thanks to Seaford Natural History Society. It’s so important that we all look out for insects in our green spaces! Finally, we were asking people to record their wildlifefriendly gardens on SEA’s Metre Square for wildlife website so that we can update our Green Pathway map. It was so heartening to hear what our visitors of all ages were doing for wildlife. We also held a free draw and one lucky boy won a South Downs National Park pack including wildflower seeds, spotting guides, games etc. https://treesforseaford.wordpress.com/join-us/ https://www.seafuture.org/on-the-verge/ https://www.seafuture.org/a-metre-square-for-wildlife/ Photo: Tree care volunteers.
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