Following on from our return to The Paddock in April, we were delighted to make a trip back to another conservation site we visited last year. This time up - The TreeMusketeer's site in Hackney Marshes!

We had a wonderful session with their team last year in September, which also happened to be the hottest day of the year…

This time fortunately, we were blessed with milder weather, despite it being the middle of July!

As always, the team at TreeMusketeers were incredibly welcoming, and this time we were even lucky enough for a full tour of the site, guided by the wisdom and passion of Christine, a veteran volunteer at the site.

We were so lucky to enjoy Christine’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the site - I’ll do my best to share some of the top tidbits in this article for you 🙌

We began with a tour of the nursery area, where TreeMusketeers grow seedlings from a wide variety of species.

This included Gingko seeds, which were rescued from a discarded branch of a dead Gingko tree.

The TreeMusketeers incubated the dead branch in water for two weeks, which miraculously began to sprout seedlings for a Lazarus-like reincarnation!

The TreeMusketeers are now growing around twenty Gingko seedlings, all from one dead branch!

The nursery also doubles-up in purpose as a science laboratory, as the team try to ‘graft’ different species of plant together to create more resistant trees.

One example is the Japanese citrus, which TreeMusketeers are grafting new trees in order to make them resistant to sub eight degree Celsius; allowing the trees to survive British winters!

Moving on from the Nursery, we browsed around the various species of berries, currents, cherries, and gooseberries across the Orchard area.

Christine explained how many of their apples had been massacred by slugs, with only a few brave survivors remaining 😢

We also checked out the new pomegranate trees (one of my favourite snacks..!) which were newly planted this year.

Due to climate-change, the UK is becoming increasingly suitable to warmer-climate plants, such as the pomegranate tree which is native to Afghanistan and Iran.

Amazingly all the trees in the site, despite appearances to the untrained eye, were all under 20 years old.

That’s because the site was only founded 20 years ago, previously it was a disused mini-golf site..!

Another fun-fact Christine shared with us - trees have to be specified according to their particular ‘rootstock’, as this determines how large the tree will grow.

Rootstock, and according tree-sizes, range from:

• Dwarf

• Small

• Medium

• Semi-vigorous

• Vigorous

Knowing the expected size of a tree is crucial to determining whether it is suitable to be planted in certain locations.

For example, a vigorous tree couldn’t be planted close by to another set of trees, as there could be too much competition for sunlight and nutrients, resulting in smaller trees getting crowded out 😢

But Christine’s knowledge and fascinating facts didn’t stop there! During our two tours we also learned:

🐸 Frogs and toads can't co-habit in the same pond. So TreeMusketeers have one pond for each!

🧼 The ‘Soapwort’ tree is so-called because it can be rubbed into a soapy lather and used to clean your hands.

👁️ You can tell a walnut tree by the ‘eye’ shapes in its bark (Fascinating, and also a little bit creepy!).

👨‍🍳 ‘Cardon’ comes from the artichoke family, but instead of eating the head as you might an artichoke, you cook and eat the stems.

🦠 TreeMusketeers are growing disease-resistant Elm trees, and have given out 70 trees so far across Londons’ boroughs. All of them cloned from one super-resistant Elm tree, capable of withstanding a disease which has wiped out thousands of Elm trees across the country.

🐝 There are 264 different species of bee! (We could only name two…). Christine’s knowledge of bees apiaries was so vast it would take a full blogpost in itself to cover!

🏭 Plane Trees were once planted all over London because of their ability to quickly shed bark. Back in the day, with London’s air so full of soot, this meant any soot clinging to the tree was quickly shedded.

But it wasn’t all sitting around learning from Christine; we did some hard-work too!

Our main tasks this time around involved clearing brambles, nettles, and other weeds around a coppice on the outskirts of the Hackney Marsh playing fields.

The nettles and brambles have sprung up recently, and started competing with the newly planted trees for nutrients.

It was time to put an end to that!

Armed with scythes, rakes, shears, as well as what I could only describe as some sort of medieval halberd… we charged upon the weeds!

Although it was only 11am, the sun was already shining with full-force, but we set ourselves to the task undeterred.

Scything, chopping, and shearing, we made light work of our prickly enemies!

Assisted by fellow volunteers from Allied Irish Bank, we felled the previously-intimidating hedges of thick nettles and brambles. Leaving the lovely, young trees plenty of room to grow unchallenged!

As always, we had our battle-mascot and chief-cheerleader, Hugo, full of energy and enthusiasm to cheer us on!

After what felt like a full day, but was in fact only a few hours, we put down our weapons to rest in the shade and admire the hard-work from our battle.

It’s hard to imagine doing this for a full day, day in day out, but I suppose what else would you expect from a group of desk-workers..!

Gratefully considering the heat, a few hours was all TreeMusketeers had planned for the session, so we gathered our tools and headed back to the main site.

It was another amazing visit to TreeMuskteers, who were so lovely and welcoming as always. They are always in need of volunteer-help, so if you are stuck for your ideas for your next CSR day, we’d highly recommend getting in touch with the lovely Christine; christine@treemusketeers.org.uk

Thanks for reading!