How to help look after street trees

Watering trees

Our trees, especially the young ones, need a lot of water. In the summer months from May to September, two full time parks service members are out watering 5 days a week

The parks service have two watering trucks with 1,100 litre water butts (or bowsers) and in dry conditions we take one or two extra water butts with us.

How to help water street trees

To help water street trees you can:

  • use the pipe our trees are planted with and pour water directly to the roots
  • pour water into the 50litre sacks that some trees are planted with, giving young trees a steady trickle feed of water

The best time of day to water is in the evening after the sun has gone down.

Man watering a tree
Hands adding mulch to tree

Adding mulch around street trees

 We put mulch around trees to:

  • help cool their roots and retain water in summer
  • handle water-logging in winter
  • keep weeds at bay

We mostly do this for trees in parks and open spaces, but mulch can be put around street trees too.

How to help with mulching

To help with mulching you can:

  • place mulch about 10cm deep and 50cm around the tree 
  • take care not to place it too close to the tree trunk, so the trunk does not rot
  • make sure it does not spill over from the tree pit onto the pavement

Weeding trees

Weeding around our trees is needed because weeds:

  • compete for water, nutrients and light
  • threaten the survival and early growth of new trees

How to help with weeding

You can help with weeding in Haringey by pulling up any weeds around trees on your street.

Hands holding weeds