Little Green Rascals

February 2022

Enthusiasm is never lacking when we help individuals and groups to plant trees, but a recent event filled us all with massive enthusiasm.

Little Green Rascals is a chain of organic day nurseries around York which prides itself – justifiably - on its green credentials and community spirit.

We were recently asked by them to plant trees in a one-acre field next to their Flaxton day nursery. We were given free rein in choice of species, area covered and size of tree, which allowed us to plant 400 trees of a height of about two metres. We consulted on the pattern - a series of copses of varied species with a winding path to an activity area at the end of the field, with wildflower meadows to follow.

On the planting day we were surprised to discover areas of very rocky ground which slowed down the 12 or so volunteers, aided by one of the nursery’s owners and her staff; but coffee and biscuits, and then a lunch of risotto prepared by the nursery’s chef, who had been called in for the day, allowed us to break the back of the work.

The trees we planted, which are larger than the more usual whips that we use, already give the impression of being a forest, and we hope to carry on planting copses in other LGR day nurseries.

We were recently asked by Little Green Rascals (an organic day nursery) to plant trees in a one-acre field next to their Flaxton day nursery. We were given free rein in choice of species, area covered and size of tree, which allowed us to plant 400 trees of a height of about two metres. The trees we planted, larger than the whips we often use, already give the impression of being a forest, and we hope to carry on planting copses in other LGR day nurseries.