We all gathered by the play area at 10 o'clock on Saturday (16th November) morning. The morning began with a general explanation about where the trees would be planted and how to plant a tree. A gazebo had been erected with plenty of hot and cold beverages and also a selection of chocolate biscuits and snacks kindly supplied by Sainsbury's of Woodchurch Road. A member of their staff was present to help serve these at intervals during the day. There was a wonderful turnout of willing and enthusiastic volunteers of all ages. Many passers by commented on how lovely it was to see so many youngsters getting involved.
The first trees to go in were the larger specimins along the Storeton Road end of Oxton Fields. These required staking and tying in. Two Council gardeners were on hand to drive in the stakes for us. It was a bright, sunny morning and everyone was in good spirits. After this first stage was complete, a well deserved refreshment break was enjoyed by all the volunteers.
Here you can see the cross marked out in advance so we knew where the trees were to go in the ground. Many volunteers were from organisations in Birkenhead such as the Guides, Birkenhead Sea Scouts, Explorers, Viking Sea Scouts, Air Cadets and Wirral Youth Service.
A huge thank you for all your help and support over that tree planting weekend.
Here in the picture on the right you can see just how much effort went into planting just one of the largest trees, from digging, positioning the tree and the stake before refilling the hole. We had a few delays at this stage as we waited for the Council gardeners to drive in the stakes for us. We were not allowed to do this ourselves due to Health and Safety regulations. There were far more volunteers than the Council had anticipated so the trees were being planted faster than they could keep up.
In this picture we are being given a lesson on how to attach the strapping between the tree and it's stake.
More Hawthawn trees were planted at the side of Duck Pond Lane. Here is our Chairman Gary with some of the Air Cadets and Wirral Youth Service. It was particularly stony along this path and hole digging became quite troublesome but we kept cheerful and soldiered on. Below are more pictures showing our wonderful volunteers.We couldn't have done it without you!
