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The 18 September the Friends went for a walkabout in the park with Council Park Officers (Rachel the Arboricultural Officer, Hemali and Nina Contracts and Service Officer - GMH Parks and Open Spaces ) to help determine where the maple tree that the Park Authority had at last managed to find.
This was a promised replacement for the sycamore that was fell due to its poor health last year.
It had been a rough ride with trees proposed, withdrawn, proposed again but unsuitable, etch. etch.
Julian, as usual was the one that followed it all through. The matter was further complicate by the Byzantine redevelopments in the second phase of the
2010 Open Spaces Funds works in the park that will require some more tree cutting, trimming, replanting in the memorial garden.
Julian infact was the one that after the long process managed to get from Rachel, the Arboricultural Officer, the undertaking that:
"... I do wish to replace the Sycamore that was removed. When these trees are given to us we do not always have the benefit of time or species selection. But I am always aware of the Right Tree Right Place [*] as this is part of my concern on choosing a location. Instead of dwelling on these past trees I would like to propose that we meet in the autumn onsite and choose a few locations for planting. That way from then on if we have trees available then we can be prepared for planting. "
So at last the walkabout was arranged.
Frank "the Elder" could not miss the opportunity and of course Julian that organised it, were there, I tagged along just for the fun.We walked, here and there, mostly arguing about the quality of the maple as a tree and how big and problematic it could become and if it could survive.(I simply pointed out that no one had actually checked the subsoil in the Park -made of demolished buildings rubble- or asked any of the long term residents what they knew about any particular spot).Lot of saplings don't grow properly because they are planted in soil that are not suitable and therefore that as a precaution a deeper and larger hole should be provided with extra compost.
Eventually we converged to the magical spot favoured by our local drunkards.The one behind the off licence and actually quite naked and the consensus was at last reached. The maple will grow majestically there.Little by little this is the way things are made...Julian however was right in pointing out:
The Park has many empty spaces, and God knows this is - really an oasis- surrounded by a concrete jungle!
So we moved along to the Remembrance Garden. Lengthy discussions than proceeded to define where, when, how and why some of the local trees should be cut or trimmed (but regardless of anything it is true that one of the few important value of the Park must consist in the presence of mature trees!).
Here there was the chance of planting another couple of maple saplings (a different variety) but controversy was still lingering.
In particular Julian was puzzled by Rachel's assessment that the tree would be too big. He had done some research and according to the Woodland Trust the Field Maple is "an attractive and common small tree that is often overlooked in woods..." and "tolerant of most conditions, including shade..."
There are already two Field Maples in the Community Garden, and based on the above he felt that an additional specimen would be an appropriate replacement for the anticipated removal and thinning out of some of the existing Sycamores during the improvement works.
At the end all decisions were postponed to a later date when the specifications on the works to be curried out would include exactly what and where the axe would be fell and what the space available would be.
At least with the Arboricultural Officer present we decided that old sycamore outside the Memorial Garden, damaged by fire all that many years ago, would be trimmed but not felled.
At the end we all agreed our Park is not much but it is OUR little precious!!
* Note: the "Right tree, right place"guidance refers to the "London Tree and Woodland Framework. GLA 2005 Objective A4 - Investigate and implement new tree and woodland planting opportunities in appropriate places-" that can be downloaded here [It is a large file and Google cannot scan it with its inbuilt virus scanner, but it is a PDF file so -no worry!!].
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