Lots of trees have been planted in and around Marston over the last couple of years, with Goodgym Oxford providing a helping hand for a large chunk of these: Much ado about nothing, Breath Tree-ly and Fruitful Sunday. In addition to planting lots of trees, the hard part is making sure they survive the first few years of changing seasons and hungry local wildlife, notably deer. This requires repeated mulching sessions, some protection using tree guards, and the use of wooden stakes to make sure the trees grow upright.

Today's task was starting to see the very fruit of these labours, with the majority of the trees planted in New Marston Rec having survived this initial period and now looking healthy and strong. Many of the guards could be removed and recycled, stakes could be re-used for some of the smaller looking saplings, and fresh mulch could be applied on the surrounding area/grass that has worked so well to prevent other weed growth. Alongside other MCG volunteers including Alistair, Kate, Kay and Isabelle, we covered a lot of ground and suitably replenished the mulch around about two-fifths of the trees there. A date will be set in January to continue this work to cover the remaining trees there so keep an eye out for more opportunities in the new year!