Last Sunday between 11am and 12 noon, residents from Llangattock Area Community Allotment Society (LACAS) planted over 900 native hedge species as well as creating a new orchard using traditional varieties of apple, pear and damson in an effort to help break one of the two world records. One was for the number of trees planted at various locations within one single hour. The second was for number of trees planted by hand at a single location, by 100 people, within an hour. Dubbed ‘Tree O’Clock’, the campaign was being run by BBC’s Breathing Places as part of National Tree Week . They plan to plant over 1 million trees across the UK and are now collecting the results – by Friday they will know if they have done it. The current record stands at 653,143 trees. The second world record was broken in Northern Ireland with a whopping 26,422 native trees (including 4,000 oak trees) put in the ground by 100 people at Gransha Park, alongside the River Foyle.
Meanwhile back in mid-Wales, nearly 50 people turned up to the Llangattock allotment including the local cub pack, The Green Valleys woodland group, local allotment members and the ECO Club from the local school to take part in the event. Jed Needs, Chairman of LACAS said: “Tree O’Clock was a fantastic event that showed how local communities can come together and make a difference to combat climate change. We are always looking at new ideas to be sustainable and we were incredibly pleased that so many people turned up to take part.”
With funding support from Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority’s Sustainable Development Fund, LACAS has developed new and innovative ways to support sustainability through local food production and has now become a well-established part of the Llangattock and district communities. Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority is eager for other communities to develop community growing projects and is continuing to work with LACAS on exciting plans to develop an orchard, irrigation systems and solar panels near the site.
For more information on how you become involved in the LACAS scheme or how your community can benefit from community growing projects please contact Jed Needs on 07794341535.