Streetwood is a neighbourhood tree trust, imagined for this template. We ask the council for a pit in the pavement, plant a small tree in it and find someone on the street to look after it. Then we do it again, a few doors down. Nobody owns the trees. Everybody waters them.

Every forest starts with a hole in the pavement.

Our first tree went into the ground on a wet Saturday in November. By spring there were twelve. The plan is several thousand, and roughly fifty years.

A slender sapling growing from a small round hole in a concrete surface, lit by a patch of sunlight

A street with trees is a kinder street.

WHY STREET TREES

A canopy over the pavement can make a summer walk to the shops noticeably cooler, for people, prams and dogs alike.

Shade on hot days

Blossom for bees, berries for blackbirds and a low branch for the robin who supervises every planting day.

Somewhere to land

Leaves and open soil can slow a downpour a little, so less of it races straight into the drains.

Softer rain

Watering a tree is a very good excuse to talk to the neighbour you have nodded at for six years.

A reason to stop

Four ways to lend a hand.

JOIN IN

Pick the one that fits your week. Most neighbours start with a bucket and end up, a year or two later, holding a spade.

Adopt a tree. Choose a young tree near your door, give it a name and keep an eye on it through its first few summers.

Join the watering rota. One bucket a week from May to September, shared with neighbours so nobody misses a holiday.

Come to a planting day. Saturday mornings in the colder months: gloves, spades, tea and a whole street planted by lunch.

Sponsor a tree. Help a trust like ours pay for a young tree, its stake and three summers of care.

Clusters of bright red rowan berries among green leaves

White blossom on a bare branch against a blue sky

Close-up of deeply furrowed grey tree bark

A branch of golden ginkgo leaves lit by low autumn sunlight

Deeply ridged tree bark patched with green moss

Clusters of small white hawthorn flowers among green leaves

Field maple leaves and pairs of winged green seeds

Small red crab apples hanging among green and yellowing leaves

Heard over the garden wall.

Imagined neighbours on the trees outside their doors. Names are fictional and photographs are illustrative.

Joan, 79

“I have lived on this street for forty-one years and never knew the name of a single tree. Now I water one called Margaret, every Tuesday.”

Carer of Margaret, a crab apple

A smiling woman with short grey hair, in a rust cardigan, standing among garden plants

Sam, 38

“The children counted the leaves on our tree in its first spring. There were eleven. This year they gave up at four hundred.”

Carer of Pip, a field maple

A laughing man in a dark T-shirt standing in front of a tree covered in pink blossom

Arthur, 72

“I came out to complain about the digging. I ended up holding the stake, and then the tea.”

Carer of Old Tom, a rowan

A smiling older man in a flat cap and navy fleece standing in a garden

Streetwood is a fictional trust created for this template. Tree-care advice on these pages is general: please check with your council or a qualified arborist before planting, staking or pruning anything.

Streetwood grows slowly and on purpose. Start wherever suits you: a bucket, a spade, or simply a name for the tree outside your window.

A narrow herringbone brick lane between houses, lined with young trees and potted shrubs

Adopt a tree

The tree register

Species & seasons

Planting days

The slow forest