Past Projects – 2015-16
Edgbaston
Ley Hill Park
The Orchards Primary once again joined us at Ley Hill to help to plant 10 specimen trees and some whips. It was a very wet day but that didn’t dampen their enthusiasm! We were also pleased to welcome Claire Halpin, one of our key funders for the year from The Halpin Trust.
Back in December 2015, we also held a sponsors’ planting event at the park when a group of ladies from the Soroptimists International planted trees in memory of members who had passed away, along with their family members.
Highfield Farm Rec
26 smart students from Four Dwellings Academy, next door to this site, came to help plant 500 saplings and 5 large trees to create a small area of new woodland. Some of them were not so pristine when they had finished!
Erdington
Marshmont Way POS
This lovely, well used open space in Kingstanding is overlooked by St Mary’s College in Oscott. Pupils from North Birmingham Academy and City of Birmingham School planted 500 young trees to create a swathe of woodland, with a little help from members of the local Youth Offending Team.
Kirkwood Avenue POS
This was the first time BTFL had worked with the Youth Offending Team; a small group of young people helped to plant 5 large trees and 250 saplings to extend a woodland corridor along the edge of this small open space in a housing estate.
Hall Green
Spark Green Park
Nelson Mandela School is right next door and all the children needed to do was pop out of their back gate to come to plant 10 lovely specimen trees to enhance this small inner city park. Spring blossom, autumn leaf colour and winter berries will all help to brighten up the park for the walk to school through the year.
Percy Road Park
In a mixed industrial and residential inner city area this park provides a small oasis of green for children to play. Members of Greet Primary School’s Gardening Club came to plant 10 trees including 5 lovely multi-stemmed purple leaved hazels, to help to screen an ugly factory wall.
Sarehole Mill
This was a special commemorative event to plant a tree in memory of Alderman Michael Wilkes, who was instrumental in the setting up of BTFL. His widow and sons joined the Lord Mayor, friends and colleagues, to plant a silver birch tree in the garden of Sarehole Mill, one of his favourite places.
Hodge Hill
Tile Cross Park
Rain, hail and a snow flurry made this an interesting morning for planting, but students from City of Birmingham School and younger planters from Shirestone Academy ignored the inclement weather and worked hard to get 500 trees in the ground, to create a swathe of new woodland. We were pleased to welcome representatives from the WA Cadbury Trust to this event, as the Trust had helped to fund it.
Bromford Rec
Heavy frost and a broken tractor made this planting a little harder than it should have been but many hands completed the manual preparations for 120 Hodge Hill primary pupils to plant 500 young trees to create an area of woodland in this large recreation ground.
Ambridge House
Local residents at the flats around Ambridge House Community Centre on the Bromford Estate were creating a community allotment garden, and asked BTFL to help with some fruit trees. Three apple, three pear, and two plum trees were planted with the help of locals and their Councillor, Fiona Williams,
Ladywood
Burbury Park
Eight year 5 pupils from Nishkam Primary came along to this park in Aston to plant 10 beautiful trees on a lovely sunny morning.
City Centre Gardens
This was a special occasion as we were planting our 50,000th tree! Lord Mayor Cllr. Ray Hassall came along to plant the ceremonial tree with BTFL Chairman Geoff Cole, Civic Society Chairman Gavin Orton, and various Trustees and BTFL Committee members. The Lord Mayor was instrumental in the setting up of BTFL in 2006 so it was fitting that he helped plant this special tree, and we were also pleased to welcome staff from Deutsche Bank’s Green Team who have supported tree planting in Birmingham for several years with us.
Summerfield Park
For the first time at this park City Road Primary School pupils came along to plant 10 lovely trees along the paths – the rain didn’t deter them and we were impressed with their enthusiasm.
Northfield
Cofton Park
This was one of our busiest days on site with 3 schools, Deutsche Bank staff and BMet College students all helping to plant 1000 young trees to create a swathe of woodland along one of the park’s edges. We also planted 20 lovely fruit trees to create a new community orchard, with the help of Urban Buzz Birmingham, a Buglife project to increase the amount of plants and trees that provide food sources for pollinating insects.
Lickey Hills Country Park
We had a fantastic day at the Lickeys with Deutsche Bank Birmingham, continuing the regeneration of an area of woodland affected by disease. The Deutsche Bank Wood now has another thousand hazel saplings to add to the coppice being created over several years. Lickey Hills Primary and Albert Bradbeer Primary pupils all came along to help, and we were also joined by some families planting trees they had sponsored in memory of loved ones.
Perry Barr
Perry Hall Playing Fields
BTFL were working alongside the Environment Agency who needed to plant trees in the area as ‘mitigation’ for some they had to remove. A small group of students from Values Academy joined us for their first experience of tree planting, working alongside EA and Glendale staff. We were even visited by local MP Khalid Mahmood!
Kingsdown Avenue Park
Heavy rain didn’t deter the Spiritual Council pupils from St Mark’s Catholic Primary from getting muddy and planting nine beautiful walnut and hornbeam trees. The children will be able to keep an eye on the trees’ progress as tghe school is just over the road.
Handsworth Park
This event was slightly different in that the pupils from Handsworth Girls’ and Nishkam Primary were planting bulbs not trees – among the trees planted the previous year in our ‘Nelson Mandela memorial woodland’. Daffodils and tulips should create a lovely spring display in future years.
Selly Oak
Selly Oak Park
We were pleased to give the Friends of Selly oak park an English oak tree to replace one damaged by deer – the Friends planted it themselves with the help of staff from Quadron, and it was soon visited by local nuthatches and blue tits who came to check it out.
Brandwood Sports Ground
Another helping of glorious sunshine helped a very busy day on which over 60 pupils from 3 schools planted 1000 sapling trees with 27 staff from Deutsche Bank Birmingham, who funded the event. We even had to get the tractor to plough some more furrows which of course went down very well with the children!
Daisy Farm Park
21 mixed age pupils from Hollywood Primary managed to plant 750 young trees swiftly enough to leave time to go mad in the play area before heading back to school for lunch. The children worked in mixed age pairs and small groups and we were impressed by their teamwork.
Sutton Coldfield
Calder Drive POS
We were again pleased to welcome staff from local company Documotive Ltd, now re-named Castleton Technology plc, to add another 10 field maples to the trees they had planted the previous year. The company plants a tree for every million documents it processes.
New Hall Valley Country Park
This was a large event with many planters – two schools, ladies from the local U3A who had sponsored trees, and some volunteers from Sutton Park all pitched in to plant 10 large trees and 500 whips in this beautiful park.
Princess Alice Park
Ten pupils from New Oscott Primary were very efficient in planting 10 specimen trees along one of the pathways in this small park at the edge of a housing and retail estate.
Yardley
Sheldon Rec
Blue skies accompanied 29 Yarnfield Primary pupils who came to plant 500 trees along the top of a mound in this long park – the mound turned out to be full of rubble but with a little bit of help, the children managed to get all the trees in to the ground in just over an hour.
Fox Hollies Park
One school had to pull out at the last minute which left a small group of just nine pupils from Yarnfield Primary to plant 500 trees! They worked so hard and their enthusiasm shone through, especially when re-homing worms.