To those of you who have watched the film by Paul Wyatt, below, you will recall that I said I would return the waste wool from Haworth’s to the Park, and plant a tree. Well this week I did just that! I closed the circle on the cycle of the wool from the sheep that graze amongst the Henry Moore sculptures. I had the help of my assistant Milda and Mark Chesman one of the resident Gardner’s at YSP.
Rowan Tree ready to plant at YSP
The tree had been waiting to be planted since the closure of Giuseppe Penone’s exquisite exhibition earlier in the year. The tree designated for me was a Rowan tree also known as a Mountain Ash, due to the fact that it grows well at high altitudes and its leaves are similar to those of an ash.
It is best to plant trees from late October onwards in the UK - many experts claim this because the tree can make new roots without having to feed the leaves. The roots grow best in cool soil, therefore the winter months give the roots time to form before the leaves develop through spring to summer, thus vying for the greater share of energy to do so.
The wool dust was saved from the scouring at Haworth’s in Bradford, earlier in the Spring and returned to the ground buried with a wool sack that I made using the jacquard woven textile of my Waterlake design. You can read more about the weaving with Camira Fabrics here.
I’ve been reading a lot about sequestering carbon, and the single most effective route to do this, is to plant more trees. I personally donate to TreeSisters who are on a mission to plant millions of trees, from Mount Kenya to Cameroon, Indonesia to Mozambique to list a few, and empowering the local communities in each region to grow them. Clare Dubois is a compelling leader and speaker, you can listen to her in conversation with Jon Snow earlier in May this year here in London.
Further links to support planting trees closer to home:
Re-wilding the Scottish Highlands:
Closer to home I am thrilled to see that my borough of Hackney has a plan to plant 5000 trees in less than three years a mixture of native and non native ones.
Planted! Yorkshire Sculpture Park October 2019