Tree Nursery
Tree growing is at the heart of TreeLink Stirling and all our aims. We do this in two ways - we have our tree nursery situated in Braehead Community Garden and we have a network of dispersed growers.
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You can get involved and find our more below.
Our tree nursery is
proudly sponsored by:
Tree Nursery
TreeLink has developed a tree nursery in Braehead Community Garden where seedlings are grown on before being given to community planting schemes. Each month we spend time collecting and processing seeds, planting seeds, planting saplings, weeding, labelling, tree identification, watering, record keeping and more.
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You can volunteer with us on the third Saturday of the month at Braehead Community Garden between 10am - 12pm. We'd love for you to join us for a sociable morning as we focus on caring for our trees in our Tree Nursery.
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Tools and guidance will be provided, bring your own gloves and kneeler if required.
If you would like more information or will be attending please email us: treelinkstirling@outlook.com
Dispersed Tree Nursery
We are also developing a dispersed tree nursery project which connects volunteer gardeners who grow trees from seed and cuttings in their own spaces across Stirling area.
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If this interests you please get in touch and we can get you started and if you want information on how to grow trees from seed visit our growing page for some help.
A Very Active Autumn
Our Tree Nursery at Braehead Community Garden has increased its growing capacity this year: trees from our dispersed growers, seedlings donated by various individuals and seedlings grown in the nursery mean we have 1200+ trees growing on site, with around 900 ready to plant out this winter. Our enthusiastic volunteer team varies from 8-10 people at our monthly Saturday morning maintenance sessions, whatever the weather, and all of us enjoy the coffee and cake break!
We took part in the Braehead Community Garden Open Day in August, and received positive feedback from visitors; and the judges from the Scottish Finest Woods Award were impressed by our growing capacity when they visited, and overall felt we deserved a 'Highly Commended' award. We enjoy joint social events at Braehead, including the festive gathering in December.
We were very grateful to the Clackmannan & Stirlingshire Environment Trust (CSET) for a grant of just over £1000 which allowed our volunteers to construct and fill two very large raised beds, one with mouse-proof mesh protection, to bring on our seedlings next year.
We have already had one tree-planting session in December, using 230 nursery-grown trees. Oak, rowan, hazel, hawthorn, dogwood, alder, willow and Scots Pine were planted at Sauchie Home Farm, a 69-acre rewilding site just outside Stirling, and our volunteers thoroughly enjoyed the day. https://www.scotlandbigpicture.com/nrn-partners/sauchie-home-farm
Other planting sessions are planned from January to March using nursery-grown trees: Riverside, Hillpark, Cambuskenneth and Raploch all have small planting schemes in the pipeline, and we should be able to contribute trees to larger planting plans at Kildean.
We are very much hoping to proceed with our small partnership planting with the local refugee Ukrainian community before March, and have everything in place, just waiting for the final sign-off from Stirling Council.
A busy summer for the tree nursery
Spring and summer have seen lots of activity in the tree nursery, which is looking very productive. Our regular volunteers have watered, weeded, planted out and maintained the beds; and the new raised beds have been constructed – many thanks to our volunteer carpenters!
Gravel recycled from a garden where it was no longer needed has greatly improved the paths and appearance of the nursery area, and the finishing touches to the new raised bed area will take place very soon.
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Integrated Growth Solutions made a generous donation of oak and pine saplings, and seedlings are coming in from several local tree growers to bring on in the nursery. We will have enough trees to support several small local planting projects over the winter – look out for information emails about planting dates.
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We are proud to be partnering with the Ukrainian refugee community in the Stirling area for a small tree-planting project. This is their thank you to local people for their hospitality as well as a memorial for Ukraine and lost loved ones. The planting will consist of small native trees such as rowan, hawthorn, field maple and blackthorn, as well as shrubs which are significant to Ukraine, including lilac and guelder rose. Almost all the trees will come from our tree nursery, and planting will take place during the winter dormant season. More details to follow.​
