Tree Group

Working together to protect and enhance for us and future generations this special part of our beautiful world.

Join us in our effort to plant 5000 trees on 100 different sites – one for every man, woman and child living in and around the parish of Ilminster.

By November 2025, we had planted 4,354 trees on 87 different sites. We are planning to achieve both of these goals by mid-2026.

Beyond that we will set ourselves new goals to be achieved by 2030, the year set by the United Nations Member States in 2015 to reach Global Sustainable Development Goals from poverty and hunger to climate change and inequality. Our main focus is in helping to combat Climate Change.

Watch our progress on the map here – and get your contribution added.

We need landowners to give us permission, enthusiastic people to join our team of volunteer planters, householders to add to their own gardens, and everybody to come up with ideas and offers of help!

Together we can do it!! For more information please email trees@greenilminster.org.uk

If you would like to donate, please click here to help us to plant a tree for every man, woman and child in Ilminster!

Next up…

November

26nov7:30 pm9:30 amWhat can gardens do for biodiversity and sustainability in a time of climate change - James Hitchmough

Event Details

James Hitchmough is Professor Emeritus in the School of Architecture and Landscape at the University of Sheffield where his work focused on encouraging more species rich, nature-like vegetation in urban greenspace. He retired in 2022 but continues to work as a design and management consultant in the UK (for example the Knepp Wilding Garden) and around the world. When not writing or speaking at conferences and workshops, he is developing a new garden on the edge of Clayhanger hamlet. See James Hitchmough on Instagram for a view into his world.

What can gardens do for biodiversity and sustainability in a time of climate change?

One of the great things about gardens is that there are a lot of them (more than 16million in the UK) and unlike much urban public space, each has a resident gardener of some sort, who generally cares about what happens there. In this talk I will explore some of the possibilities of increasing the benefits of gardens for people and wildlife, and what current scientific research has to say about all of this. I will use my own garden project (plus a little of my professional work) to illustrate some of these ideas and how I have tried to do as little harm as possible in the process.

James Hitchmough is Professor Emeritus in the School of Architecture and Landscape at the University of Sheffield. He retired in 2022 and is developing a new garden on the edge of Clayhanger.