More Trees Planted
In February, storm Eunice brought record 122 mph winds to southern Britain and wreaked havoc throughout the country, tearing off roofs, downing thousands of trees, closing rail routes and causing four deaths. The house at Brockhampton Park was lucky not to sustain material damage, but we did lose a further large beech tree, fortunately, one that was destined to be axed at some future point due to crown rot. Climate change was predicted to bring more and worse storms to the UK and recent years have shown the accuracy of that prediction.
Above: Storm Eunice removed a part of the O2 Arena roof in London.
Right: The “Jubilee Grove”of three oak tree saplings may just be made out in the shadows.
In recent days, the BBC reported that The Blenheim Estate (location of famed Blenheim Palace, near Oxford) has received a grant of £1m to plant 270,000 new trees in nine mixed forest areas by 2025. Well, we don’t have 0.4 square miles of grounds to compete with that, but last year, thanks to the initiative of Melanie Day (12) and approved by the board, BP obtained, free of charge, £1,000 worth of tree saplings from the local authority’s ash die-back compensation scheme, paying only to plant them. These included 3 oaks, 2 rowan (Mountain ash), 10 spindle, 10 dogwood and 10 native privet. The three oaks have been planted on the southeast lawn as a commemoration of Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee year and most other planting has been across the lake (right).
Hardly trees, but it is worth noting that the black plastic that has protected the roots of the growing yew hedge around the east garden for several years has been removed, together with a growth of weeds, and the root area has been tidily mulched with wood chips from our own supply. Now that the garden plants are well-established, shortening the deer fence around the east garden is on the agenda.
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