A hardy bunch of volunteers recently planted 100 trees in Chambers Field (between Great Horsham Hill and Jenny Bare Legs field) at Chesworth Farm. The saplings will create a short hedge behind which dense Hazel, Gorse and Hawthorn will form a small copse. Native specimen trees, including Wych Elm, Crab Apple, Cherry and Guelder Rose, will provide colour and fruit.
As the trees mature, we are hoping for increased feeding opportunities for a wide range of insects, with early flowering Gorse for our first spring bees, followed by Cherry blossom. Bird nesting habitat will follow and later, in the autumn, Hazel nuts for our hibernating mammals and apples, hips and haws for our wintering birds.
Planting went well as all the plants had sound root systems and some had even begun to burst into leaf. The addition of a hormone rooting compound should see them off to a good start.
Tree guards will give the saplings some protection from local rabbits. Likewise when the British White cattle are grazing there. Although plastic, the guards are second- or third-hand, having been used in previous projects by Horsham District Council. After this final use, they will be recycled.
Many thanks to our volunteers and to the local benefactor who left the Friends of Chesworth Farm a generous legacy for these trees, with more to come at the next planting season.
Photographs: Group (Rina Quinlan), volunteers hard at work (Dave Verrall), trees planted (Tony Cook)
Friends of Chesworth Farm 
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