Every tree we plant in Donholm starts months earlier in our small nursery, where a young team of five residents handles everything from seed collection to potting to the daily watering that gets a seedling strong enough for the ground.
How the team built its skills
None of the team arrived with formal horticultural training. What they've built is skill picked up through repetition, guidance from more experienced members, and a fair amount of trial and error with species that didn't survive their first attempts. Early batches of certain indigenous species had poor germination rates until the team adjusted shade cover and watering frequency through several attempts, knowledge that now feeds directly into which species we prioritise for future plantings and how each one is handled at the seedling stage.
That knowledge has become genuinely specialised. The team can now judge, largely by look and feel of the soil, when a seedling is ready to be hardened off under fuller sun exposure, a step that, done too early, kills a meaningful share of a batch.
More than a supply chain for planting days
Beyond the trees themselves, the nursery has become a small green livelihoods programme in its own right: consistent, skill-building work for young people in Donholm, tied directly to visible results across the neighbourhood every time a planting day happens. It's one of the clearer examples we have of environmental work translating into something with real value on a young person's own record, not just a volunteering credit.
We're looking to expand the team as demand for seedlings, ours and from nearby estates that now request stock directly, keeps growing. Anyone in Donholm interested in nursery work, no prior experience required, can reach out through our Get Involved page.