It’s a chilly November day in West End Road in London, and over by a large pile of mulch we see two familiar (and similar!) faces hard at work, piling up wheelbarrows of steaming mulch for other volunteers to take to the planting locations. There’s a sense of efficiency in the way these two women are working - this is not their first rodeo!

Putting down roots in London

Kris and Kate are twins from Finland and grew up in Canada, but settled in London some 20 years ago.

“My intro to tree planting was through working at the Disney Store because we supported the Woodland Trust and we used to volunteer with them quite regularly,” Kate tells us. “But their events are quite far from London and it became impossible to get to really. So when we found Trees for Cities we thought 'yay they do events in London', so we came to our first planting event ten years ago and fell in love with it!”

A decade of tree planting events is impressive - but when you start putting that against how many trees these twins have planted, they may have broken some records even at Trees for Cities!

The turn up group

But what is it that keeps them coming back?

“We love the 'Turn Up' group!”

That response required a bit more explanation!

“Some of the regular volunteers call ourselves the Turn Up group, because Trees for Cities allocates events to volunteers but we’d always turn up!” Kris explains, laughing. “Every planting season we set out with the ambition of attending every single event.”

Winters are long in the UK, and many people find it a struggle to combat that urge to just stay inside and hibernate. Fortunately, trees don’t let us! They need planting in these darker and damper months, which is why our planting events run throughout October to March.

Kris adds, “and we’ve explored parts of London we wouldn’t have normally visited. And because some events are at similar areas, we can look at the forest that we've planted previously, or street trees or whatever. So it's nice to keep coming back and seeing that.”

Revisiting planting sites is one of the joys of volunteering with us. Watching baby trees grow year on year and knowing “I planted those” is a great feeling!

Planting events for the books

We asked them about any particularly memorable planting events.

“Yes!” Kate chimes in, “Horsenden was quite a memorable one. I think it was 2018, and it was kind of magical. It was cold but really sunny, with frost everywhere. There was a really good community, and it was pre-Christmas - it just fell into place.”

“I had this great group of volunteers and I thought they would have hated it because they were so soaking wet, but after lunch they came back to plant more, and they came back to more events after! We actually stayed in touch for a little bit, sending photos of planting events we went to.”

Kris is referring to her group because they’re both Volunteer Supervisors. It’s a role we have for experienced planters who are looking to have a bit more responsibility during planting events. They help out the new volunteers that turn up on the day, sharing tree planting knowledge and making sure everyone has what they need. It’s a vital part of running an event - we literally couldn’t do it without them!

There’s no such thing as too much mulch

There’s plenty of mulch to move, so I ask them one last question before we all get back to planting - what’s their advice for someone looking to get into planting with us?

“Dress prepared and you’ll have fun!” Kris tells us, “warm gear, waterproofs, wellies or hiking boots and don’t worry about getting muddy.”

“My advice is about planting,” adds Kate, “trees will survive better if they are mulched properly. There’s no such thing as too much mulch!”

Maybe we should get that on a t-shirt.

Get involved

If you’re interested in joining us for a planting day, see what we've got coming up.

You can also sign up to our newsletter to stay in the loop with all things trees!