By Victoria Plum
There is a Chinese proverb about planting trees. The Chinese say the best time to plant is 50 years ago, and the second best time is now. Can anyone argue with that?
There is now a new impetus to plant forests – “tiny forests”, which, unbelievably, only need be the size of a tennis court.
Pioneered by Dr Akira Miyawaki, they just require improved ground (loosened soil and humus), indigenous trees and close planting.
A variety of heights of actual saplings and a variety in their growth pattern and height is important, too. Close planting means that weed competition is quickly shaded out.
Care by watering, weeding and protection is only needed for about the first two years because the rapid growth means the trees soon create a micro-system and become self-supporting.
I know from observations in my small garden how quickly and efficiently nature will create tiny micro-worlds where plants that are happy together will thrive together if given a chance by a thoughtful guardian and so I am convinced that this system works.
Astonishingly, three of these tiny forests are to be planted in Norfolk – at Fakenham, North Walsham and Sheringham.
About 30 years ago I won a tree in a National Trust raffle at Felbrigg Hall. I got very excited at the prospect of bringing it home and employing a digger to make the right size hole in my garden, but of course that didn’t happen.
In fact, the tree had to be planted, by me, in the park at Felbrigg where I do go and check up on it occasionally and it is quite big now.
I chose a beech tree and interestingly it had been grown by the National Trust from beech mast from their own trees that have been established at Felbrigg for hundreds of years.
This ensures the sapling is happy with the local environment, and the mutual symbiotic association between local fungus and plant will be established, thereby aiding health and growth.
So you can see that it would be ideal for your tiny forest if you could acquire locally grown saplings, rather than the usual imports from the Netherlands.
I believe this well-thought-out approach is an important and constructive step forward, and a much more useful concept than the “greenwash” of a few, newly planted random trees.
Pictured above is the beech tree I planted at Felbrigg Hall about 30 years ago, positioned to take the place of the fallen beech to the right, a casualty of the 1987 gales. The sapling was about 18 inches high when planted. Photo: Tina Sutton