Middle Earth Weekend

Posted on 13/05/2013 by Jane Edwards.

Birmingham Trees for Life took their information stand along to the Middle Earth event at The Shire Country park (Sarehole Mill).  We enjoyed meeting members of the public who were interested in our work with schools and community groups throughout the Birmingham area. It was also lovely to meet several children who had planted trees at our events in the last few years and still remembered us.

The event was very well supported, despite heavy rain showers, and lots of country crafts were in evidence along with the odd Hobbit!

Plant a Tree for Life Community Sponsors' Event at Woodgate Valley

Posted on 20/04/2013 by Jane Edwards.

Birmingham Trees for Life welcomed  families and friends along to a Community Event at Woodgate Valley Country Park.  All of the families were taking part in our Plant a Tree for Life campaign and had sponsored a number of trees for various reasons. For some it was in memory of a loved one, for others to celebrate a christening and for some.....just to celebrate planting a tree! This event had been postponed due to heavy snow in March so everyone was really pleased to feel the warm sun and see the blue sky.

Young families and also families made up of several generations worked together in the glorious sunshine and made short work of planting close on 100 trees.  Larger Oaks, Hornbeams, Rowan and Bird Cherry trees were supplemented by smaller whips to increase this area of woodland that we are continuing to extend.

To catch everyone hard at work click here

We were joined on site by a team of gentlemen who planted a number of container grown trees, with the agreement of the Ranger Service. These had been grown on from much smaller whips by a member of the group.

This is the final planting event of the season for Birmingham Trees for Life and is later than usual due to the heavy snows in March, but we hope you have all enjoyed reading about our events as much as we have enjoyed participating in them.  We look forward to meeting many of you again in Birmingham's parks when we start our next planting year in November 2013.

Forresters help extend our community forest!

Posted on 19/04/2013 by Jane Edwards.

Five intrepid ladies from Forresters joined members of BTFL in our last business sponsored planting event of the year. Birmingham Trees for Life have worked several times with businesses and members of the public to help extend a woodland area within Woodgate Valley Country Park, and today Forresters  sponsored the planting of a Quercus palustris, a Pin oak, and several smaller silver birch trees at the site.

During the event Christine Cushing, Chairman of Birmingham Civic Society, presented a plaque to Forresters to commemorate the planting of the trees, following which we all enjoyed some well earned refreshments.  To see more of their hard work click here

Birmingham Trees for Life need business sponsorship to help to fund our activities, and we would like to thank all those companies that have supported us in 2012/13 and hope they will continue to do so in 2013/14.

If you are reading this blog and would like to sponsor tree planting activity, please contact us via this web site. We can guarantee you a very enjoyable experience!

Final Schools Planting

Posted on 18/04/2013 by Jane Edwards.

Todays tree planting event marks the end of our planting with schools for this season and everyone at Birmingham Trees for Life would like to thank all the schools that have taken part. We know how busy their school day is but we have welcomed pupils to nearly every planting we have undertaken this year and their enthusiasm has been infectious.

We will now be concentrating on planning our events for 2013/14 so watch this space!  If you are a Birmingham School reading this blog and you would like to feature in it next season please contact us via this web site.

Thank you all again for making our job so enjoyable.

Cream Egg tree planting!

Posted on 18/04/2013 by Jane Edwards.

How lucky are we? Whilst rain fell on most of Birmingham the sun shone in Ward End Park. Just as well, as we had already had to postpone this 'eggy' planting once due to severe weather. As the original planting was due to fall at Easter we had decided to incorporate an Easter Egg Hunt with cream eggs kindly donated by Deutsche Bank and Waitrose Hall Green......but 8 inches of snow put paid to that! Undeterred, we rescheduled for today and welcomed 3 schools on site.

Children from Thornton Primary School and Sladefield Infant School came along to plant a hawthorn hedge around their Forest School area within the park, and senior pupils from Saltley School worked on another area in the park planting over 300 small trees and 12 large standard trees.  This was our last Big Tree Plant event of the year.

Members of staff from Deutsche Bank in Birmingham, who had sponsored the event, came to support the pupils' efforts and also to bring the all important cream eggs!

An 'Easter Egg Hunt' seemed inappropriate so long after Easter, so we decided on an 'Egg Roll' event, which the Saltley pupils entered with enthusiasm, collecting as many eggs as they could hold!

The younger pupils seemed happy to think the Easter Bunny had left their eggs for them in safe keeping with the Friends of Ward End Park!

After the event the Friends laid on a substantial buffet lunch which was enjoyed by the 3 BTFL members, Deutsche Bank staff, and pupils from Saltley School. Our thanks to them.

Two local Councillors joined us at the event and assisted with planting and food service! We all agreed it had been a wonderful day. Thank you to everyone concerned.

To see the 'eggy' fun click here        

At last we make it to Froggatts Ride!

Posted on 17/04/2013 by Jane Edwards.

14 Eco Group pupils from Holy Cross RC Primary School finally made it to Froggatts Ride in Sutton Coldfield to help us plant 300 whips to create a copse in a corner of this small oublic open space. They had been all geared up to plant last month but a heavy covering of snow meant that we had to delay this event. The delay had in no way reduced the enthusiasm of this small band of pupils, and in a very short time all 300 whips were safely planted.

The pupils were joined on site by a local Councillor and four members of Birmingham Trees for Life. Preparation of the site had been undertaken prior to the snowfall but fortunately the ground had remained soft enough for the pupils to plant without too much assistance.

The wind was cold but everyone soon worked up a sweat!  It had to be better than the previous months snow! The children will now think of this area, created by them, as Holy Cross Wood.

Too see more of their efforts click here

New dates for snow-hit planting events

Posted on 09/04/2013 by Jane Harding.

We are pleased to confirm the events that had to be postponed due to the unseasonal snow in late March have been re-arranged as follows:

Big Tree Plant event at Froggatts Ride, Sutton Coldfield - 17th April at 10.30am

Big Tree Plant event at Ward End Park - 18th April at 10.30am

Plant a Tree for Life sponsors' planting at Woodgate Valley - Saturday 20th April at 11am.

Let's hope the cold weather will have gone away by then!

Sponsors' tree planting 23rd March postponed due to snow!

Posted on 22/03/2013 by Jane Harding.

We're very sorry to advise all those families who have sponsored a tree that the planting event tomorrow, Saturday 23rd March, at Woodgate Valley, has been postponed due to the snow. The ground is unsuitable for planting, as you can imagine!

We have emailed all those we have email addresses for directly.  We will be in touch shortly with news about a re-arranged date for the event in April, after the Easter weekend.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience, but this decidedly un-spring-like weather is a bit out of our control!

Deutsche Bank sponsor trees for Queens Park

Posted on 20/03/2013 by Jane Edwards.

Hardy staff from Deutsche Bank in Birmingham helped plant 5 large Cherry trees at Queens Park in extremely cold weather. The event was part of Deutsche Bank's sponsorship of Birmingham Trees for Life's planting programme and we have been pleased to welcome them at several events throughout the City. They will appear again at our final event for this planting season in Ward End Park on March 28th.

The Cherry trees were being planted to line the avenue and complement the existing planting plan.

To see some Bankers hard at work click here

Grove School bring the sunshine with them to Handsworth Park!

Posted on 14/03/2013 by Jane Edwards.

Handsworth Park is always a joy to visit as it is the most amazing recreational space- but on a spring day in glorious sunshine nowhere can beat it!

 Pupils from Grove school helped plant 9 particularly interesting trees at various locations within the park.

The pupils were all chosen from year 5 and 6 at the school and were accompanied by their Gardening Group leader and a member of staff. All of them live in the area and we are sure they will be keeping a special eye on their trees!  To see more click here        

A quiet moment in Handsworth Park.

Posted on 14/03/2013 by Jane Edwards.

A moment of quiet reflection for members of the Handsworth Kurdish Community,  who came together to plant a memorial tree in Handsworth Park. They were joined on site by a local Councillor and members of the Friends as well as the Constituency Parks Manager and BTFL staff.