Petersfield Climate Action Network and ACAN are delighted to report that all the fruit trees and hedging plants supplied for this winter’s A Fruit Tree in Every Garden project have been allocated. This means 1000 subsidised fruit trees (funded by East Hants District Council) have been sold and nearly 3km of free hedging plants (funded by The Tree Council) distributed across East Hampshire this season! Over the four years this PeCAN project has been running – and growing – they have provided nearly 2000 fruit trees for local gardens and allotments. 

In Alton this year, 200 subsidised fruit trees were sold, and 1,110 hedging plants distributed to local residents by ACAN volunteers in February. Click on the link to download a map of the trees and hedging purchased by local people this year.

The benefits offered by planting a fruit tree include habitat for wildlife, water retention, shading, blossom, fruit and carbon absorption – but hedgerows could be fellow gentle champions of nature recovery. Replacing fences with hedges and replanting gaps will help us meet our national, and international target of 30% of land restored for nature by 2030. Native hedging offers a diverse habitat, supporting a range of wildlife as a natural foraging corridor and source of shelter, and capturing and storing large amounts of carbon.

One customer commented “The 80m of mixed native hedgerow we collected will be planted on our wildflower meadow, primarily for wildlife and to boost biodiversity, and will be laid using traditional Hampshire methods. We can’t wait to see the difference it makes to our little pocket of Hampshire chalk!”

A Fruit Tree in Every Garden will return once again next autumn. You can register your interest in purchasing a subsidised fruit tree on PeCAN’s website (petersfieldcan.org). Keep an eye on their Facebook and Instagram accounts for news.

This project is part of East Hampshire District Council ‘s Grow Up Community Farm project and has received funding from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus