New for Old Trees project update

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Thanks to funding from Trafford Housing Trust’s Community Panels and Trafford Council, we’re working with a Greater Manchester-based organisation called City of Trees to plant around eight new trees in Gorse Hill. The ‘New for Old’ name is because the new trees will be planted to honour some of our oldest local residents. The idea came about because we know from feedback that some of our oldest residents, especially those with mobility problems, find it hard to get involved with our planting activities. We’ve been out to interview several residents now about their memories of trees, parks and open spaces in Gorse Hill and had some really great stories. Lots about the parkies!

We have two planting dates coming up that you are all welcome to get involved with:

  • Saturday 12th November, between 10am and 1pm at Cranford Avenue Park

  • Wednesday 16th November, between 10am and 12 midday at Nansen/Topfields Park

No need to bring anything as we will provide all the tools.

Once the trees are planted we plan to inscribe some of the memories our local residents have shared with us onto wooden ‘tree charms’, and hang them in the trees.

A few months back we spent much of our meeting looking through tree nursery brochures with Beth from City of Trees to choose ones for the sites we had identified. We had some interesting discussions about native versus non-native trees. I’d originally thought that I would prefer native, but Beth explained that it’s actually a good idea to have a range of different trees to help protect against disease. Ash dieback being a good example of where one disease can wreak havoc where the species it affects is widespread.

For those of you who like to know the detail (like me), here are the trees we’ve chosen:

We’re really excited to be nearly at the planting stage!