A Year of Care: Andrew Gifford's Mission to Nurture Saplings for Protect Earth

Help and support from the Protect Earth community comes in many forms at different times. Andrew Gifford lent support in what came to be an urgent time of need!

Recapping Andrew's work

You may remember a story about Andrew Gifford from a year ago. Andrew helped show us that there are so many ways the Protect Earth community can be involved in ways that work for them.

Andrew took the initiative to grow saplings from seed at home, donating the sampling to Protect Earth when they were old enough and robust enough to be moved to their forever home, forming part of a woodland that Andrew and everyone can visit.

Growing saplings from seed is more complex than it may sound. Before starting, Andrew researched the equipment and conditions he needed to replicate (for a year!) and found seeds of native broadleaf trees close to Bristol, where Andrew lives.

Over a year, Andrew meticulously cared for over 200 saplings, tenderly coaxing them from seeds into the sturdy beginnings of what will one day be towering trees.

Tightly packed though they are, the saplings uprooted from the bag ok. We’re confident few saplings broke when being separated and are confident they’ll settle into their new homes very well.

Finding their forever home

Planted with stakes in and guards to go on, these trees will populate a new woodlands made up of mixed native broadleaf species.

As (lucky) fate would have it, Andrew's trees came of age at just the right time. Protect Earth had a small project we were planting in Goytre Wood, and our order from the nursery fell through. Again, Andrew had planted his seeds, and enough of them at just the right time that our nursery order was falling through; Andrew was able to save the day, allowing us to complete our project.

These 200 saplings, nurtured with care and devotion, have found their permanent home in one of Protect Earth's cherished woodlands in Goytre.

To sum up

With the help of Andrew Gifford, we learned that our community is passionate about the environment and dedicated to our goals to spend a year nurturing saplings!

As was said in the original story, growing saplings from seeds for Protect Earth could be a fun project with your kids or grandkids. If you want to try your own project at home, please drop us a line with your project plans, and we can advise you.

This was a special project to have communal involvement at a different part of the story than usual. We and Andrew are chuffed to see his 200 saplings planted in their forever home. We all look forward to seeing what this corner of Goytre looks like in the coming decades.