Tiny Gardens - Council Concern

After our article published here and in Milton Matters about growing plants in tree pits (the patch of earth at the base of a tree growing in our streets), several council staff have raised concerns that we may be encouraging people to do things which may damage trees, which was obviously never our intent.

Councillor Kimberly Barrett said, "My officers are keen to come to a future open Milton forum to discuss this with the forum and residents as well as talking about the tree pit trial that we will want residents to get involved with. We are in the middle of updating our tree pit policy and how communities can get involved but the issue we are facing is that people are digging into the tree pits to plant which is causing damage to the roots of the trees. It has taken a lot of research, surveying, engagement and testing over the last year to 18 months to get to where we are now which will enable us to act on data and evidence to create a robust policy to see better planting in a time where our climate is changing whilst making sure that the community is involved and enabled to do this kind of stuff.

We are now much more aware of soil density and soil type across the city, the type of plants we should now be planting, the diseases that we should expect to be seeing and preparing for but also, the depth of these tree roots in the tree pits. It is why officers wanted to change the article because we do not want to actively be encouraging people to dig into tree pits. We have found that a lot of trees in tree pits across the city have a root network that is close to the soil surface. It means that even a little bit of digging could cause issues. I know people will shrug their shoulders and suggest popping a few bulbs an inch or two down into the ground will not cause problems but, we have seen low lying root networks in some of these tree pits and I do not want to see damage caused to the trees if people accidently disturb or damage the root network. It is another reason why we are updating the tree pit policy for future planting. Believe me, if it was a simple solution, I would have implemented it by now but it is not and lots of things need to be taken into account. It is also why we have surveyed literally every tree pit in the city to see what is underneath (such as utilities), if there is a low lying root network and we have also discovered a number of tree pits that have been filled in and not replaced and they are also on our list to open them back up again and get a tree planted where possible or, have something else put there to increase biodiversity if there are issues underneath.

It has turned out to be much more complex than anyone thought and we want to make sure we do this properly whilst also including our communities so that we have a robust policy that enhances our environment with community ownership and, with the right tree being planted and maintained in that pit. We are actively in conversation with multiple councils who have attempted to do this successfully as well as talking to Councils who also tried to do this but were not successful. Our aim is to be in the successful category but to be in that successful category, we need to make sure that we are giving out the right advice to people who want to take care or adopt a tree pit.

We are working with a lot of green groups and green residents alongside multiple departments of the council and, other Councils to make sure we can go forward in a positive way and sort out enabling residents to adopt tree pits in their roads. We are looking to make announcements soon about this and I hope it is something you will all be interested to hear more about.

I hope that is helpful though and I look forward to seeing everyone at the Picnic.

Kimberly"