As a resident of a first floor flat in Maida Vale I don't have a garden. But I did have two window boxes a few years ago which I used to keep topped up with flowers and small plants. One day I noticed an unusual plant which I knew wasn't weed. I let it grow and slowly realised that it was in fact a small oak tree which I recognised by its distinctive leaves. I let it grow but had to transfer it into a larger container and placed it at the front of the property in a small area that has a few shrubs in it.
Fast forward 12 years or so the tree grew to over a meter tall and it was obvious it really needed a new home. I was at the first meeting of the Notting Hill Genesis Sustainability Advisory Group at their office in King’s Cross in March this year when I mentioned the tree to Caroline Nolan, estate services contract manager. She said: “Leave it with me and I'll speak to our gardening contractors Just Ask for a possible site to replant it’.
Just before Easter I was pleased to get an email from Dennie Hunter‑Kiely, contract manager at Just Ask Estate Services to say they had identified a site where they could plant the tree and asking when they could pick it up. After they had planted the tree, Dennie sent me the photo of its new home in Bolney Meadow estate in Lambeth. This will benefit not only the residents on the estate but the wildlife too. Oak trees are valued for their importance to insects and other wildlife, supporting the highest biodiversity of insect herbivores of any British plant (at least 400 species).
