The London Borough of Hounslow is recognised as being one of London’s greener boroughs with an estimated 40 per cent of the land area consisting of parks, woodlands, and open spaces.

In 2020, an exceptional campaign was launched to plant a tree for every child that was born in the borough, resulting in a staggering total of 4,500 trees being planted in 39 separate locations within Hounslow. Both the residents and wildlife within the borough enormously benefit from the green infrastructure, as the trees help absorb the air pollution and provide shade from the rising summer temperatures. This is one of many ways in which the council have used to help address the climate change emergency that has become so immensely important.

Hounslow is certainly an advocate of evidencing how community ownership can allow our towns and cities to thrive; local volunteering groups often assemble to support Hounslow Highways and Greenspace 360 crews with the tree planting and arboricultural maintenance regime.

A multi-million-pound regeneration scheme has transformed the town centre; building a high-quality housing development of 284 homes, called The Assembly, just a stone’s throw away from amenities including a brand-new primary school and bus and underground train links. Countryside Properties have accomplished a sophisticated liveable space for home buyers and the Landscape Architects, Corsican Associates, have ensured the view from the balconies and windows is that of high-quality greenery through tree planting.

Oliver Connell & Sons Ltd, the civil contractors on this scheme, understood the high-calibre nature of this prestigious project and therefore planted the 15 trees in the hard paved areas in GreenBlue Urban’s uncompacted nutrient-rich RootSoil 20 to allow for the establishing trees to grow and prosper. This soil is protected within the Rootspace G2 soil cell system which creates a healthy, balanced environment for the tree roots, along with having a world-leading highly engineered load capacity vs cost ratio.

GreenBlue Urban encourage tree planting to be done correctly the first time, saving long term maintenance and replacement costs later down the line. By encouraging the roots to develop downwards away from the paving area using products such as ReRoot Barrier, removes the chance of paving damage and the possible liabilities associated with this. Securing the trees with ArborGuy Ties and providing RootRain irrigation and aeration inlets, these trees have an excellent chance of growing to maturity and attaining the species potential lifespan. GreenBlue Urban would like to congratulate all that were involved with this successful regeneration project; we look forward to seeing how this best practice urban tree planting scheme will look years from now.