Planting Trees at Ashburton Playing Fields

Trees for Cities is pleased to be working with Croydon Council to plant new trees in Ashburton Playing Fields. These trees will complement the existing habitat features on site, provide additional shade, and enhance biodiversity.

Mile End Park 020324 Sol Denker 23
Volunteers at a community planting day

Plant trees and celebrate our 30th anniversary with us

Join us on Saturday 30th November 2024, 10am-3pm at Ashburton Playing Fields, Croydon CR0 7RA for a free community tree planting day. This will be a family-friendly day, as we celebrate 30 years of impact and plant thousands of urban trees for future generations to enjoy.

Trees for Cities will provide all the tools and equipment you need as well as guidance on tree planting from our team. There will also be a free hot lunch and refreshments provided.

Accessibility is very important to us, and we are working to make sure our events can welcome everyone. We are offering relaxed sign in for people who require it. If you have any specific needs or questions around accessibility at this event please contact community@treesforcities.org.

Activities

There will be festivities throughout the day as we celebrate 30 years of planting urban trees. We're excited to welcome The Museum of Memorable Trees, an immersive art installation exploring the deep connections people have with trees. Keeping with the tree theme, we'll also have Roaming Trees, a walkabout comedy act for all ages.

To keep us planting to the beat, a steel band will be performing throughout the day, and face painting will be provided by ABC Face Paints.

Interactive Roaming Trees Image8
Roaming Trees will be providing entertainment while volunteers plant trees!

Sign up

Please sign up for the event using the form below.

Why are we planting trees here?

Ashburton Playing Fields are part of a green corridor which runs from Addington Hills through Addiscombe, Woodside & Shirley Leisure Gardens Allotments, Ashburton Playing Fields, Long Lane Wood and up to South Norwood Country Park. Long Lane Wood is a remaining fragment of the Great North Wood and is home to Bywood Avenue Bird Sanctuary (a fenced off area of woodland intended as nature reserve).

Being part of this green corridor, the new woodland area will provide additional habitat for wildlife. Alongside Bywood Avenue Bird Sanctuary, this will benefit the local bird population and will enhance the biodiversity of the surrounding landscape.

The planting design has been set out to ensure ample space is maintained for sporting activities and other recreation. Walking routes have been taken into consideration and the design incorporates clear pathways and open areas of woodland. The individual trees along the pathway will offer shade along the walking route and will also add depth and interest to the space. Scrub islands within the south section of the site will support butterflies and other invertebrates.

Thank you for your feedback

We received valuable feedback during our community consultation on the the project and have made amendments to the original plans.

Click the links below to see the updated designs.

The yellow areas on the map show where we would be planting new woodland sections. In these spaces, the trees would be planted as small saplings (some only about 30cm tall) and will grow together into a woodland with a minimum of 8m wide paths and wider glades between sections. The pink dots represent scrub islands (groups of 6 saplings) and the red dots represent individual standard (larger) trees. Some of the standard trees will have a group of three smaller trees around them, these are marked in green.

Recent tree planting

In March 2024, Trees for Cities along with volunteers from local schools and the community planted a selection of 44 large trees along the borders of the playing fields. These trees contribute to increasing canopy cover in the area and improving amenity value.