For Earth Day, the team decided to get stuck into the local charity Tree Musketeers plant and take care of the trees in Hackney.

We spent the day picking fruit, pruning trees, building bug hotels and watering beautiful trees!

At houseof, having a sustainable business is part of our core beliefs. On the business side we are doing quite well; from having no plastic packaging to offsetting our product emissions and giving the customers the option to offset product use. In our personal life, we strive to do the same.

So each month one houseof team member is allocated an environmental issue to organise a day/ activity around and the whole team get involved. As we are based in Hackney, we have focused our efforts on the local area. Earlier in the year Michael, our co-founder, organised a litter pick and we committed to collecting four bags of litter around the London fields and Victoria park area.

Next up was me, Clare, and my focus was Earth day. A lot of different activities come into mine, but I decided to focus on trees. My thoughts then turned to how can we help with trees in the local area (also at the time being influenced by
the Queen’s canopy incentive). I contacted the local council to see what schemes were in place that we could volunteer for, they pointed me in the direction of the ‘Tree Musketeers’; A local charity run by volunteers who plant and take care of
the trees in Hackney. They also, work with Hackney council and community groups to educate on how to care for trees in the local area.

The team arrived at the tree nursey (located on Hackney marshes play fields), excited for what the day would bring as I’d kept it a surprise to what the main activity was for the day. First, we started off by learning how to water effectively, especially in hotter months of the year. Then we teamed up with Marcelo; a regular volunteer. He was us through the main focus for the day “pruning fruit trees”; this is a very important task as it optimally affects how the tree grows in future years and how much fruit will grow. He told us about how to build a strategy of where to cut and how much to cut. Working together we successfully pruned 3 fruit trees, luckily we got to try some of the fruit too and even got to take some home. We ate delicious greengage plums and mulberries ripe from the tree.

Once we had finished pruning, we took a lunch break. It was a hot day, so luckily we were all able to get some shade under one of the trees that had been in the nursery for many years. This also gave us time to chat and get to know all the other volunteers there at the same time. Once lunchtime was over, Marcelo lead the team in the next activity which was building a habit for wildlife to live in. First, we had to cut the grass. This sounds straightforward, but we used shears and some of the team got to use a “Scythette”, so we sweated a lot here! Once the grass was cut, we had to dig a shallow hole to hold the rocks that we piled up to build the habit. The day ended after we had built the habit and brushed down and put all the
tools away. The team and I had a great day at the Tree musketeers, it was such a great experience and look forward to supporting them in the future. If you are based in the Hackney area and wish to get in touch with The Tree Musketeers
then please visit their website: https://www.treemusketeers.org.uk/volunteer

If you’re not based in the Hackney area, but still want to get involved. Then I would say contact your local council to see which incentives they have in place or if they are aware of any charities in your local area.