Who does what?

• Southwark Council decides the planting locations, chooses the appropriate trees, orders them from nurseries and replaces any tree that's been lost in recent years.

• Private contractors dig the pits, plant the trees, water them at intervals and replace any early losses.

• Council arborists deal with major pruning, pollarding and felling.

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What's our role?

• Herne Hill Tree Watch is closely involved in the planting programme for SE24.

• We raise funds for new trees through the annual Cleaner Greener Safer (CGS) scheme, where our ward councillors allot money for environmental improvements.

• We work with our street leaders, our volunteers and the Tree Services team to choose sites and species

• We water and maintain all young trees

• And we ensure the council meets all its planting commitments.

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What's been planted recently?

• Our list of trees planted in the latest extended season, which lasted from winter 2021 to July 2022, can be found here.

• Check out all the trees planted the season before, winter 2020 to spring 2021.

• And you can also find trees from the two previous seasons, 2018-19 and 2019-2020. Trees need continued watering for their first three years on the street.

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What's on its way?

• The council's schedule for 2022/23 is close to being finalised. You can see our provisional planting list here. 

• A lot of the trees on there arose from a Tree Watch project called 'Breaking new ground', aimed at planting trees in locations where none have been grown in recent times. Rather than just filling old gaps, it will expand the tree cover to new areas like the ends of residential streets, at junctions and along busy main roads.

• We've raised money from CGS to buy the trees and the council will fund the tree pits. We've carried out street visits with residents to choose potential sites and the tree officers have given their approval.

• In addition, we've got CGS funds to expand planting on Casino Avenue, where the main road is still very bare in places. Look out for more magnolias and an even better display of flowers in spring 2023.

• Finally, we work with the council to replace all recent and historic losses, where trees have fallen in storms or been felled because of disease, decay, damage or danger. Virtually all these losses will be made up in the coming season.