The first few hundred whips (young trees) are in the ground at the top of the future Discovery Park in Chilmington. Aspire Landscape Management has been busily planting to ensure some of the trees can take root this winter season.

The plan was to have dozens of local volunteers to help plant and thanks to so many willing volunteers a strong roster had been formed, but sadly due to the current restrictions it hasn’t been possible… yet.

The small team at Aspire will plant what they can into the new year and retain some of the 6,666 whips for volunteers to plant when restrictions ease. Hopefully there will be plenty of opportunity yet to get more involved.

The Urban Tree Challenge is an ongoing initiative by the Forestry Commission to bring more trees to urban and peri-urban areas of the country. Ashford Borough Council applied to the programme in the summer and was granted the capital costs needed to plant 6,666 trees in Chilmington. Aspire, on contract to the Council, provided the labour and Hodson Developments granted use of the land. The area identified for planting in Chilmington is adjacent to Colemans’ Kitchen Wood, an ancient wood in need of much care and protection. It is hoped that this project will bring more attention to the site and encourage local people to get involved in protecting these new trees as well as the ancient woodland.