Through this autumn festival The Tree Council aims to inspire everyone, particularly school children and families, to gather seeds, fruits and nuts and grow the trees of the future. The festival starts on the 23 September (the autumn equinox, considered to be the first day of autumn) and continues until the 23 October, giving everyone plenty of days on which to hold events.

Growing trees from local seed can have great benefits in restocking areas with trees of local provenance. The concept of local provenance — trees that are adapted to the local circumstances and so are likely to flourish and help restore, conserve and beautify local urban and rural spaces. Collecting seed and growing trees is also a great way to get children involved and start growing the next generation of tree enthusiasts.

Interested in getting involved? If you go to the last year’s events list you can find out about the kind of activities that took place in your area last year. If you are interested in organising your own event, go to the website and get some useful tips on how to organise successful seed gathering activities and how to grow trees from the seeds you have collected. Don’t forget to register your event, so that other people can come and join you!

If you want to get more people in your community involved, or publicise seed gathering in a school or youth group, you can use the free downloadable poster for 2009 and print as many copies as you need.

Contact: www​.treecouncil​.org​.uk