Dead Trees on Melbourne Grove

[Reg Smeeton]

Two trees on Melbourne Grove opposite Chesterfield Grove appear to be dead - though it looks like they came into leaf briefly. Deyhdration? Are other trees at risk, especially the many newly planted ones? Does the Council water trees or do they rely on nature and the public? So many questions...

[steveo]

Yes, tree alert time. The council have a planting budget but little for maintenance apparently. Keep your buckets at the ready fellow tree huggers

[Nero]

Just use your dirty washing up water to water them, as well as alerting the council's tree dept. 7525 2000

[candj]

We used to have to water the trees on our street during the hosepipe ban so probably the same again now that the weather is warm. Agree with Nero, I used to use the baby's bath water.

[toomuchchocolate]

i'm afraid they'll need a lot more than one washing up bowl of water each day. If they are big/old trees it may not be this years dry weather that has killed them. I'm told it takes a long time for trees to die, so they could have been dying since last year or even the year before. it's a great shame. Trees are great.

[Hare]

If anyone has a tree that was planted within the last few years and that still has a watering pipe sticking up out of the soil, it will never do any harm to slosh as much water as you can down it. Since the coalition government arrived and announced cuts across the board, many councils have put a moritorium on spending and for the arb sections, that means no tree planting, no watering and no aftercare. Don't know if the same applies in Southwark yet but probably only a matter of time.

Oh, and to add insult to injury, one of the coalition manifesto commitments is to launch a national tree planting campaign in urban areas (ie not countryside). It's supposed to be a Big Society initiative. That means you and me doing it and funding it. Also, haven't we already got National Tree Week every year?

If anyone from the council is reading, we need a local Tree Warden network in Southwark so at least we can get a start on looking after what we've got throughout the lockdown.