Friends of The Byes are now working to establish a community tree nursery
Thanks to a large donation of trees by Michael Horsnell and smaller contributions from others, there is now a good stock of saplings up to 1-2m high trees, mixed native hedging, some shrubs and perennials. Species include many fruit trees, Gingko’s, silver and downy birch, hornbeam, giant sequoias, hazel, beech and others.
The initial plan this winter is to plant some of the trees in the Byes, in conjunction with EDDC, to enhance the area further and to start replacements for dead or diseased trees. The larger specimen trees can still be planted as ‘sponsored’ trees which is part of our group’s fundraising scheme.
Other aims/ ideas for the tree nursery:
– Sell trees etc locally or via our website for a reasonable donation to FoTB. A rough price guide is £1 for small saplings up to £25 for the largest trees but any donation of your choice would be greatly appreciated and all would go towards the funding of our work in the Byes
– Donate trees to local charities
– Do ‘swops’ with other groups in the Sid Valley
– Involve local schoolchildren by them visiting the nursery, collecting seeds, growing on saplings and helping plant the trees
– Propagating trees etc from cuttings
We hope there will be a lot of interest and plan to develop these aims over the next few years. Other ideas and helpers are always welcome.
For more information contact us by email FoTByes@gmail.com or go to www.sidmouth-byes.org.uk. You can also find us on Facebook www.facebook.com/FriendsOfTheByes.