A few years ago, I started gathering acorns and growing them in pots as part of my role for Woods for the Trees. I also encouraged children at the primary school I worked at to do the same.
Eventually, we planted the trees out at local secondary schools as part of the children’s transition to their new school. We had lots of trees left over and I had promised to find them a home. Luckily a local landowner, Nick, was keen to have more trees on his land and provided a home for them.
I was also worried about the local deer population. While planting on Nick’s land, I had seen a large deer crash through the undergrowth and deer, of course, eat trees. However, there was no sign of deer damaged trees and in fact only three trees had failed to grow out of the sixty-seven we had planted, which was a relief to see. There were also some wild oaks that had seeded from the local trees and they were uneaten as well. Nick told me that the deer mostly liked to eat willow. We had been lucky with the weather as well; lots of rain and sunshine.
As relationships director, I felt it was my duty to have a long discussion with Nick about our plans for next year. This meant that Jonathan and Steve, who had both come along to check the trees did most of the work. I must say it was very satisfying to be out in the countryside amongst the wildflowers and the newly planted trees. They looked healthy, which was a bit of a relief, because I wasn’t sure what to expect. We will be back, probably in October to monitor their progress and gather more acorns.
