Tree Planting at Hinxton Hall

National Tree Week in the UK this year took place from 27 November-5 December. This is the UK’s largest annual tree celebration, marking the start of the winter tree-planting season, and was therefore the perfect time for the Hinxton Hall Conference Centre team to get their hands dirty helping the Gardeners on Campus.

In autumn/winter 2020 the wonderful grounds team collected seeds from the native trees on Campus, which include apple, Ash, Field Maple, Silver Birch, Chestnut, Rowan and Beech among others.  These were successfully potted and nurtured to produce young saplings ready for planting in the grounds surrounding Hinxton Hall and the Conference Centre.

On 30 November, Head Gardener Lee and two of his team, Andy and Joe, plotted out the areas for 25 new trees to be planted along Old Park (next to the Conference Centre), the start of the meadow behind the Conference Centre, and in the parkland behind the lake. Given a shovel each, a pair of gloves, and a safety briefing, six members of the team headed out to get muddy!

Andy gave an informative demonstration, detailing how to plant the trees to give them the best possible chance of survival, including the size of the hole needing to be dug and how to protect the roots, both when removing the sapling from the pot and when filling the planting hole with soil. Once all 25 saplings were carefully planted, they were supported by a bamboo pole and a tube to protect them from wildlife and the weather.

The second half of the day saw the team working in the gardeners’ yard where they helped plant seeds from three varieties of trees, Silver Birch, Field Maple and Rowan. These will be loving cared for by the gardening team over the next 12 months and will be planted at the same time next year in areas where they natively grow on Campus.

The whole experience was incredibly enjoyable for the team, after so many zoom calls it was enjoyable for them to connect in person, getting hands-on with nature and appreciating being outside in the lovely grounds on campus! It made for some fun team building, and it was a chance for the team to get to know the gardeners who put in so much hard work looking after the grounds, plants and wildlife.

Planting trees annually will help to support the biodiversity on site, contribute to carbon offsetting events, and will add to the beautiful surroundings event delegates and visitors get to enjoy.