Volunteers from Frome’s Missing Links, supported by 19 students from Frome College on the Duke of Edinburgh scheme, recently planted about 450 young tree saplings. The saplings will form a hedge, which will run alongside the planned cycle path near Whatcombe Fields.
Event organizer Andrew Marchant said, “This was a worthwhile community event. The trees are very small so it will be four or five years before they are a significant size. Once in the ground each sapling was mulched with wood chips and watered. Our thanks go to Steve and Claire Marsh and the DoE students and the Woodland Trust who donated the plants, rabbit guards and stakes.”
The dominant plants were birch, hawthorn and willow, with crab apple, hazel, oak and holly also part of the mix.
Chair of Frome’s Missing Links, Richard Ackroyd added, “Following the event the FML Friday Club will need to make the fence stock proof to protect the plants. This must be done quickly as cattle are going on the field early this year as supplies of winter-feed are low due to the dry summer of the previous year. There will be further planting in the autumn and we hope to start construction of the path in due course, following what we trust will be a successful planning application.”
Pictures show DoE students and FML volunteers at work on the new hedgerow, close to Whatcombe Farm and the river Frome.
