Watford Community

The following week we returned to plant 1,200 more native broadleaved trees, continuing the woodland we had begun earlier. Again we had plenty of volunteers to achieve this, and by now some of them were familiar faces. The hotel has achieved its goal for the second year running, and are now confident of being able to continue without our help.

We are invested now, so we were please to see that they teamed up with Watford and West Herts Chamber of Commerce again to help the hotel’s garden team plant 2000 trees in March 2024, 2025 and 2026. Great job everyone.

The Grove Hotel try to be environmentally friendly, and so they had made a pledge to plant 2000 trees a year until 2028. On a cold Friday in March, Phil and Steve were back in Watford to provide support for the planting of the first 1000 of the 2023 trees, as a continuation of our original project. This time the aim was to start creating a 1.6 acre woodland.

As always, the local people were very supportive and turned up with enthusiasm to help.

Towards the end of the same tree planting season we visited Grove Hotel again to plant a shelterbelt on the edge of the hotel’s property. Shelterbelts are marvellous for increasing biodiversity, as well as acting as a windbreak and privacy screen.

We had 1000 native trees and shrubs to plant, but fortunately we has a huge turnout of volunteers, both adults and children, who did an amazing job in spite of the mud and the cold. Using canes and spiral guards makes for a quicker job than stakes and work well when planting hedgerows and shelterbelts.

We don’t normally plant fruit trees, but the hotel were keen to have a small orchard, so we planted several species of 100 English apple trees and 100 English pear trees.

The hotel have their own gardeners so this site should be well cared for.

This planting at a hotel near Watford is one of our larger projects, with 3600 trees planned over the next two years. In November, we decided to begin by planting 400 trees on the site. We chose a good mix of species, including small-leaf lime, wild cherry, silver birch, hawthorn, hazel and dogwood to start us off.

The hotel have their own gardeners, so these trees should be well cared for.

This is the first planting of four near Watford which will be is one of our larger projects, with 3600 trees planned over the next two years. In November, we decided to begin by planting 400 trees at The Grove Hotel.

There was some initial panic as the Lord Lieutenant of Watford, Robert Voss CBE, was attending with members of the press to record the event, and the trees still hadn’t arrived! This rarely happens as we arrange delivery well in advance to allow for hitches, but of course it would happen for an important occasion like this one. The crisis was averted when the trees arrived at the last moment.

Relieved the panic was over, we showed the volunteers what needed to be done, and we started planting. It was cold and wet, but the volunteers were in good spirits. The Lord Lieutenant arrived, the press took their photos, and we finished planting in good time.

(Photos curtesy of The Grove Hotel )