Planting trees for the Queen’s Jubilee Canopy

On Saturday 19th November a group of pupils, parents, staff and Old Cryptians met to plant the 30 trees we received as part of the The Queen’s Green Canopy

The day before, the school ground staff had marked out two rows 5 metres apart and 5 metres between planned plantings.

We quickly organised into planting teams; one to place the cane, one to split the soil and one to plant the sapling – a production line!

We were sent 15 silver birch, 8 mountain ash (rowan) and 7 wild cherry. We planted the rowan and cherry nearest the drive as they will be shorter and provide plenty of colour through the year. The row at the back being all silver birch which will provide plenty of height and grow quite quickly.

The trees should grow with little or no maintenance, but we’ll keep an eye on them and remove any competing weeds in the first year and to make sure they remain as growing trees rather than potential grazing for the wildlife. If anyone would like a biology and geography project, it would be good to plot each tree (what3words perhaps?) and monitor and record its height through the years. Perhaps we could even have a sponsor a tree opportunity.

Very special thanks to Bob and Lesley Smith, Pankas Agarwal, Lystra Maisey and Raffie Ludlow-Maisey, Luke, Michelle, Andrew, Linda and Dave Goscombe (great family effort), Nick and Sam Perkins, Steve Knibbs and Adam Ashby for making the time to help the project.

Website supported by Cass Stephens

Cass Stephens