Plant a Tree for the Jubilee

One of James’s favourite trees is at Thorp Perrow Arboretum in Bedale. It’s a huge oak, planted to mark the Silver Jubilee of King George V in 1935, with a bench encircling its trunk, and is a favourite place to sit for a “picnic”. I am in awe of big trees and this one is particularly impressive as well as being 77 years old.

Numbers mean nothing to small children and so, to help James understand, I compared the age of the tree with the age of family members. I won’t tell you which family members we used because they might be reading this blog, but James’s reaction shows how effective the comparison was: “Wow! That’s really, really, really old!” He was also fascinated by the idea that a huge, majestic oak tree could grow from a little acorn.

When King George VI was crowned in 1937, thousands of trees were planted all around the world and their details recorded in a ‘Royal Register’ which was presented to the King. Inspired by this, The Woodland Trust is encouraging people to Plant a tree for the Jubilee to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. You can plant a tree as part of an event, or you can plant a tree in your own garden – just let them have the details and your trees will be included in the register.

We planted some trees a couple of weeks ago. Our garden isn’t big enough for an oak tree, and so we settled for an apple tree and a plum tree. James was really keen and immediately set about waving the spade around and randomly moving soil around the garden. Given a little direction, he proved to be quite a good digger. A few weeks on and the trees are very happy, as is James!

Go on… be part of history and plant a tree for the Jubilee. Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.