About
Gay Close is a small site tucked behind houses on the west side of Wellington. Here you will find three cherry trees; two sweet and one sour, and two apple trees, alongside some native trees planted by the district council at the same time.
Directions
Gay Close is continuation of Gay Street. You can drive via Priory or walk via the footpath from Baker’s Lane. What3words: offer.seducing.clean. It is a residential area and so please try to walk or cycle if possible.
Design
It is a lovely success story of the way that local residents, TTW and the district council all worked together!
In summer 2020, Lucy, who lives on Gay Close in Wellington, was upset to see a horse chestnut tree had been cut down by the council. Apparently it was dangerously damaged. So she posted on the TTW’s community Facebook group page, and we suggested she got in touch with the council to find out if it was their land, if they had any plans to replace it, and if they would mind a fruit tree there, as this fits in with TTW’s aim to have free food around the corner from residents houses. We had a spare sweet cherry which we offered, and the council not just agreed to the cherry, but planted it as well!
When we delivered the cherry to Lucy, she said her children were disappointed that it wasn’t an apple tree. So we suggested, if the council were happy, we could add a couple of apples too, (two were needed for pollination) as there seemed like ample space in the neighbourhood. Lucy liaised with the council and they said yes, so Lucy chose which trees the family would prefer from a suitable selection.
Implementation
TTW supplied and planted the apple trees with the family in mid March 2021. They have an eating apple, “Saturn”, which stores well, and a duel purpose cooking and eating apple “James Grieve” as well as the sweet cherry. All the neighbours who walked past while we were planting were thrilled that there was something they could pick from too in the future. A year later, with permission from the council, we planted another two cherries, a sour cherry suitable for a spare shady patch, and a sweet cherry as a pollination partner for the original cherry. The council will continue to mow the grass as before under the trees.
Biodiversity
When planting the trees we discovered lots of chafer beetle larvae in the soil, which fits with the large amount of starlings that are seen in the neighbourhood at times, as this must be what they are eating. We advised how the neighbours could invite even more wildlife to the area by creating a wildflower meadow with long grass in the summer around the trees, however due to lack of volunteers to maintain it, this hasn’t happened yet in this area.
If you have a spare patch of green space near your house that you would like to see have a fruit or nut tree planted, please get in touch. The space would have to be assessed for suitability, but the town council’s tree strategy encourages the planting of more trees, so we will see what we can do.
2022
Acquired
400m²
Size
5
Plants Added
Plant Species
Existing Mature Trees
- None
Added Trees (Large)
Added Trees (Medium)
Added Shrubs
Planting Plan
Two apple trees and two sweet cherries planted where there was space and enough light, with the sour cherry able to cope with more shade so planted nearest the north facing fence.
Photos
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