On a windswept cold, but dry, early winters day, my daughter and I set off to meet the guys from Edinburgh Treetime at a small piece of Midlothian Council owned land in our town of Loanhead. Five mighty oaks (OK, they were about 12"/ 30 cm long twigs and roots), were delivered ready to join another 30 that were planted by volunteers that very morning. All 35 were paid for as part of the corporate responsibility programme for www.RoperTCL.com. There will be some more larger trees too. This could not be done without my customers and partners, so thank you all.
This was very hard work! First clear away the grass, put the special wedge shaped shovel in the middle, stand on shovel, wiggle it and then drop the oak sapling into the hole. After a spot of trampling down the earth, a protective tube is placed around the sapling and attached to the wooden stake in the ground. Stand back, admire and repeat.
Despite having gout in my left foot (yes, I am always ready for an excuse to do nothing), we were able to do the job in just under 30 minutes. Here, in the last picture, we see all of our hard work and some of the work by the volunteers from this morning. A big thank you to them as well.
Treetime Edinburgh (https://www.tree-time.com) is part of the Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust (http://www.elgt.org.uk).
My solicitors firm, Burness Paull (https://www.burnesspaull.com), sponsor this project and told me about it. I chose it as I wanted to have a local environmental charity to support. There are now 35 (baby) Oak trees in Loanhead, Midlothian. The first trees from ELGT in Midlothian, so they are now planting in all of their intended locations across the Lothian region of eastern Scotland.
There may even be a similar project near you!
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