SPRING IS ALMOST upon us, but there is still time for tree planting! In fact if you didn’t get around to it last autumn, now is probably the optimum window for putting in bare rooted stock. The ground should no longer be too wet or frozen to be workable, yet the young trees are still dormant. In just a few weeks time they will be starting to break their buds and come to life, and then it will be too late to move them about without risking disturbance and damage to their roots.

Planting trees is one of the most radical forms of direct action we can take if we want to make a difference to the future: on both local and global scales, the benefits of trees and forests on all life processes are innumerable as they transform the elemental forces of sunlight, wind, soil and rainfall. The immense and inconceivably complex networks of their root systems and the micro-organisms and fungi they interact with catch and cycle nutrients, stabilise and build fertile soils, reduce erosion and counter the spread of deserts. Transpiration through the immeasurably vast collective leaf surface area of the forest canopy pumps out oxygen and cleanses the air, powers the world’s water cycles and regulates entire climatic systems. Trees also absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and lock carbon into their cell tissues, thus they could even play a major role in halting and reversing the threat of climate change.

The amounts of land required for such a task would of course be vast – some estimates suggest that around 500 million acres of reafforested land would be needed to make a significant difference to global warming – probably beyond the capacity of even the combined efforts of the entire Idler readership. Yet as the old saying goes, ‘every journey of 1,000 miles starts with a single step’, and we can all do our bit by planting trees wherever we can, whether in orchards, woodlands, hedgerows, parks or in our own back gardens. If you haven’t got a garden, why not indulge in a little guerilla tree planting? There are plenty of abandoned or uncared for sites around, unloved and littered spots just crying out to be transformed into urban forests of apples, plums, blackthorn, hazels, walnuts, rowan, oaks and ash… technically I guess that committing such random acts of beautification might be considered illegal, but to my mind the spectacle of prosecutions would be the criminal act, and would do nothing but highlight the absurdity of our planning and trespass laws.

Whether private garden or public waste-ground, whatever your preferred site of intervention, trees need not be expensive – you can raise your own stock from seed collected from woodlands or parks (a handy guide can be found at  treegrowing.tcv.org.uk/grow). Bundles of hawthorn whips can be obtained for literally pennies per plant from commercial nurseries or organisations like The Conservation Volunteers, whilst the Woodland Trust  often give away free tree packs to schools and community groups. Good quality fruit trees can be purchased from specialist nurseries such as the Agroforestry Research Trust and the Cool Temperate Nursery for around £15 each, a worthwhile investment, although it is getting late in the season to guarantee that their best stock has not already been sold. Alternatively ‘bargains’ can be picked up at this time of year from high street discount shops keen to clear their stock for just a couple of quid or less. Last year my good friend Steve Jones of Permanent Culture Now toured the pound shops and discount stores of Bolton, buying up unsold apple trees due to be dumped with cash from a small enterprise grant. These were planted around deprived estates in the area, empowering local people to grow their own healthy fruit crops. The skills involved in tree planting aren’t rocket science either – the basics can be found in the Hackney Tree Musketeers ‘Tree Care Guide’ booklet, downloadable here. They are easily learned and will stand you in good stead for a lifetime.

Graham Burnett is the author of Permaculture a Beginner’s Guide and The Vegan Book of Permaculture. He is also a permaculture teacher, and runs permaculture and forest gardening courses:  www.spiralseed.co.uk