110 trees successfully potted on by Harvest @ Home’s DofE outing at Blenheim estate. Planting trees at Blenheim Palace supports the Estate’s initiative to add 1,000 native saplings to its grounds to sequester carbon.

The last week of February, Blenheim Palace’s Park Farm welcomed Harvest @ Home and long-term partners, Chilworth House Upper School Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) students, to help pot over 100 trees on the premises. 

Harvest @ Home is a Cherwell Collective group dedicated to building community wellbeing and horticultural skills. The group utilises under-appreciated community spaces by turning them into food-growing sites and public greenspaces for community enjoyment and education. Harvest @ Home also works with local partners and school groups under the ‘community crop’ initiative – where partnerships with Blenheim Palace and DofE formed.

Planting trees at Blenheim Palace supports the Estate’s goal of adding 1,000 native trees across the parkland. The young trees have each been grown from seeds collected from across the site. This tree-planting effort forms part of Blenheim’s wider sustainability aim to become the UK’s first carbon-negative estate.

Despite a decidedly wet February, the Forestry team inside the Barn made the rainy weather no challenge for tree potting. 

Harvest @ Home worked with the cohort from Chilworth House Upper School, as part of the volunteering section of their award. The students potted a total of 110 fruit trees which, when grown on, will be planted across the estate and sold to nearby landowners. The students appreciated the chance to get outside and be closer to nature – something different to usual schoolwork. 

The Blenheim team were thankful for the student’s work which meant they could get the young trees potted on before the change in season and achieve more sustainability work through community support. Once fully mature, all the trees in Blenheim’s project will collectively sequester 21 tonnes of CO2 per year; enough to offset powering 2,500 homes for the year.

You can support this project by sponsoring a tree on the Palace grounds.

“Planting new trees is vital to maintain the carefully-balanced ecosystem within our Park, and will make a significant impact on the environment, absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere.” 

– Roy Cox, Estate Director at Blenheim Estate

Harvest @ Home looks forward to working with Chilworth House Upper School and Blenheim in the future for more environmental work. 

If you would like to get involved with volunteer gardening (no experience or supplies necessary!), or have a DofE cohort or a class that would like to get into growing, please email harvestathomeuk@gmail.com.