End of Season at Booth Street

Posted on 29/03/2012 by Sue Griffith.

Our last tree planting event of the season was one of our most successful in terms of the impact on an Inner City park and the enthusiasm of the schoolchildren.  Three enthusiastic schools joined us at our final planting, one arriving by minibus. 

It was touch and go as to whether James Watt Primary would make the event as they were waiting for a visit from OFSTED, but luckily it didn't materialise on our planting day so with a sigh of relief, 10 pupils walked the half a mile to the planting site. Holyhead School had already stepped into the breech with 18 of their pupils, and at the last minute Birchfield Community School managed to arrange transport to bring 10 pupils along to help with what turned out to be a challenging site.  This park covers previously demolished properties and the bricks from most of these were in evidence just below the surface!

                                          To see our photographs of the event, click here.

We will be starting tree planting again in National Tree Planting Week in December 2012, so please do get in touch if you would like to be involved in any way.

                               This planting was funded by the Government's tree planting campaign.

Revived Ancient Hedge Line at Bournville

Posted on 21/03/2012 by Sue Griffith.

At Bournville Valley Parkway, six pupils from Dame Elizabeth Cadbury Technological College, including one set of triplets, worked in teams to help plant trees opposite their school, and reinstate an historic hedgerow. They were joined on site by members of Bournville Village Trust who have just entered into sports team sponsorship with the College. Their teaching staff helped us create our photographic record and all the pupils were able to return to school in time for a lesson before lunch....much to their disappointment!

 For more photographs of the event, click here.

Sponsors Planting Day at Rectory Park

Posted on 17/03/2012 by Sue Griffith.

Birmingham Trees for Life held its annual 'Plant a Tree for Life' day for local people who have sponsored trees over the year, on Saturday 17th March at Rectory Park, Sutton Coldfield. Over 100 people came along to plant their trees, many being family groups who had sponsored a tree to remember a lost loved one, or to mark a special occasion such as a birth or anniversary.

        The Friends of Rectory Park were present in numbers,               having sponsored a tree as the Friends and also several             had done so individually. 

        The event was also supported by a large group of over 20         people from a Sikh Temple who had sponosred 10 trees at         the last minute.

As usual, the event was supported by staff from the City Council, including the Woodland Manager, Constituency Parks Manager, the local Park Keeper and Head Ranger for Sutton Coldfield. BTFL is grateful for their support, especially the Woodland Manager, who has provided significant assistance throughout the past year and beyond.

For more photographs of the day, click here.

The sun shone, which was a bonus, as the forecast had been for rain. After the planting people were invited for refreshments at the Sutton Coldfield Cricket and Hockey Club, who had kindly offered the Clubhouse and tea and coffee free of charge

New Woodland at Sennelys Park

Posted on 14/03/2012 by Sue Griffith.

 For photographs of the event, click here.

Bromwich Wood

Posted on 08/03/2012 by Sue Griffith.

The woodland at Bromwich Wood was extended on 8th March by enthusiastic pupils from Kitwell Primary School and older students from King Edwards Five Ways.  Teamwork was much in evidence as 21 pupils from Kitwell Primary school and 15 sixth form students from King Edwards Five Ways made their second visit to this site to extend a woodland area that their schools had worked on last year. Kitwell Primary School pupils arrived on site first and received instructions on planting techniques from a member of the Ranger Service.  Kitwell were then able to take charge of the older students when they arrived and pass on their planting tips!  Competition between planting teams was very much in evidence!

 For more photographs of the event, click here.

An Orchard for Sheldon

Posted on 07/03/2012 by Sue Griffith.

The Sheldon Country Park Visitor Centre (click here for more details) is proud to now have its own orchard of traditional English apple trees.

Please click here for photographs of the event.

Partnership working at Victoria Common

Posted on 04/03/2012 by Sue Griffith.

Victoria Common, Northfield is a very well used park close to the town centre. Recently several different partners have come together to improve the park. The City Council have used some Section 106 money (funds from a nearby development) to reduce the overgrown shrubs around the former bowling green and a seating area will be provided.

Near this entrance to the park from the shopping centre there are already some mature unusual trees of interest. BTFL's contribution is to fill gaps in the avenue along the main path with flowering hawthorns and cherries and to increase the park's tree collection by introducing an indian bean tree and a foxglove tree.

The work was carried out in freezing rain by the Council's landscaping contractors. 

      At the same time, the Friends of the Park were busy creating a new       orchard in another part of the park that used to be allotment land.         The Northfield Eco Centre have been funded by the Big Tree Plant         to create new Community Orchards in this area of Birmingham and         several volunteers were planting apple and other fruit trees. 

The park is appreciating all this care and attention
and further work is planned as resources become available. It was quite an achievement to have two
Big Tree Plant events going on side by side on the
same wintery morning. For more photographs, click here.

For more information on the Northfield Eco Centre Orchards Project, please click here.

Teamwork at Glebe Farm

Posted on 02/03/2012 by Sue Griffith.

Glebe Farm, Shard End is a large open space right under the north west flight path of Birmingham Airport.  Although it is part of the Kingfisher Country Park and the River Cole runs through it, the site is rather bleak. Turning some of the mown area into a woodland has still left a huge amount of space for recreation, whilst improving the part of the site next to the river for wildlife.

On March 1st, 30 younger children from Audley Primary were helped by 8 older students from Cockshut Hill Technology College to plant hundreds of native saplings. 

The sun shone and everyone soon had to take their coats off. 
Each Cockshut Hill pupil had 2 primary pupils to work with as a team. There was great competition between the teams and many of them managed in excess of 20 whips.
After Audley Primary went back to school for their lunch Cockshut Hill stayed behind for another 30 minutes. They helped the Council's Woodland Management Team, Rangers and BTFL people to
finish off the planting.
A member of the Friends of Kingfisher Country Park, also came to help. 

More pictures can be found by clicking here

Project Kingfisher was formally declared Kingfisher Country Park in July, 2004. It is associated with an 11km stretch of the River Cole running from the Coventry Road (A45) at Small Heath as far as the M6 at Chelmsley Wood.

   Inaugurated in 1985, it is a joint project sponsored        by both Birmingham City Council and Solihull MBC          together with English Nature, The Environment              Agency, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and the Wildlife        Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country. 
   For more information about the Country Park, ring
   0121 748 3798.

This event was part of the Big Tree Plant - the government's campaign to involve communities in tree planting.

Tree Planting Events in March

Posted on 01/03/2012 by Sue Griffith.

All these events have now taken place and you can read reports here on the Blog.  Our tree planting starts again in December 2012.

Thursday March 1st, Glebe Farm, Shard End - B34 6HU: .
Thursday March 8th, Bromwich Wood, Bartley Green - south of B32 4BS, saplings.

Wednesday March 14th, Sennelys Park, Bartley Green - B32 3BA at 11.00am off Barnes Hill
Saturday March 17th, Rectory Park, Sutton Coldfield - B75 7RS note sponsored trees only; see 'Sponsor a Tree' section for details.

Sunday March 18th, Lickey Hills Visitor Centre - B45 8ER orchard planting. Ring 0121 445 6036 for more details.
Wednesday March 21st, Bournville Valley Parkway - B30 1UL.
Sutton Park Memorial Plantings - phone Rangers on 0121 354 4074 for further details.

Elms at Falcon Lodge

Posted on 29/02/2012 by Sue Griffith.

This wedge of open space land between Glover Road and Churchill Road in Falcon Lodge, Sutton Coldfield may not look much, but it is an important part of a green corridor that extends along Churchill Road into the Green Belt not far away. The little stream flows north eastwards into Kingsbury Water Park - a passer by told us that newts had been seen in the stream.

           An old hedge line runs the length of the site. As we had              found a Wych Elm in the hedge, along with hazel and                oak, we decided to plant some disease resistant elms                  together with the exisiting native species, adding some              field maple.
           Ten large trees were planted and then hazel and oak                  saplings were added between the trees and the                          hedge to thicken the wooded area.
           Two local City Councillors came to help out with the                    planting

           For photographs of the event click here. 

The 10 pupils from John Willmott school worked hard planting the saplings, even thought they were sad that they completed the task in time to get back to school for maths.

Their gardening club wellies came in very handy for firming in the young trees, although the large number of worms caused several diversions whilst they were rehomed.

The trees were funded by the government's Big Tree Plant programme - for more information click here.

Specimen Trees at Sparkhill Park

Posted on 23/02/2012 by Sue Griffith.

Sparkhill Park is the busiest park that we have ever planted in. Many people walking by on a sunny morning came up to us saying how pleased they were that trees were being planted. Some of the walkers were taking part in a "Walk 2000" event where a 2km walk with like minded people regularly takes place as part of the City Council's health promotion campaign.
For more information on other park walks click here.

Our trees were planted in the area at the bottom of this map with the help of 19 children from the nearby English Martyrs' Catholic Primary School. The 10 trees included Liquidambar for brilliant autumn
colour, silver birch with bright white bark, two walnut trees, some oaks and two wonderful tulip trees. (These have flowers like tulips, but 
are not related and somewhat bigger!)

               For photographs of the event click here.

The purchase and planting of these trees was
funded by Birmingham City Council.  

With thanks to contractors Quadron Services for doing all the hard work.