Bedford Borough Council is the latest to join our national street tree sponsorship scheme, enabling local residents to get trees planted in their neighbourhood by making a donation via our online app.
“We are really pleased to be joining the Trees for Streets project, bringing trees and wildlife out of our beautiful award-winning parks and open spaces, and onto our streets. The Council planted over 4,634 trees last year and the Trees for Streets scheme makes it easy for local residents to get directly involved in improving their neighbourhoods by getting even more trees planted.”
Dave Hodgson, Mayor of Bedford Borough
A street tree outside your home can reduce traffic noise and shade your pavement on hot days – as well as creating a new habitat for wildlife. Street trees have been shown to reduce traffic accidents, prevent flooding – even increase house prices. And people who live in tree-lined neighbourhoods have better levels of wellbeing than those who live in areas that are less green.
Our online platform makes it really easy for anyone in Bedford to sponsor a tree in their street to make a request to the council by providing a few simple details. The council then assesses the chosen location, and if it is suitable, arrangements will be made to plant a tree the following winter – the best time to plant young trees.
Once each street tree is planted, it will need watering every week throughout the summer for 3 years to give it the best chance of survival. So everyone can do their bit to help street trees to grow and thrive.
Our street tree watering tips:
- It’s best to water in the early morning or evening when it’s a bit cooler, so the tree can absorb as much of the water as possible before it evaporates in the sunshine.
- Young trees need 50 litres of water each week during the summer – that’s 5 standard watering cans, or 25 empty 2l drinks bottles! Get your neighbours to help, and you’ll have it done in no time.
- If the tree has a watering pipe, pour half of the water down the pipe and the other half on ground around the tree trunk. If the tree has a watering bag, simply fill that.
- Get into a regular habit – we remind people on our social media channels to water trees on #WateringWednesday, but you could give your nearby tree a daily watering can full Monday to Friday instead, or do it all at the weekend – as long as it gets a good long drink.
