For the first time ever, Fanshawe College organized a tree planting event, inviting students and London locals to participate.

The college partnered with Reforest London, a local environmental organization, who provided all the supplies for the event, which took place on Sept. 23.

After a rainy morning, volunteers were set up on a large plot of wet mulch and soil across from Parking Lot 5 on the main campus. They each worked within their own marked square, planting a variety of native plants and trees of different sizes, close together.

“We’re looking at putting in three plants per square meter,” said Cindy Buelow, Fanshawe’s Garden Manager. “So, it’s a very dense planting, and that’s to encourage very fast upward growth of these trees.”

This is what horticulturalists call the Miyawaki method–a afforestation technique developed in the 1970s by Japanese botanist, Akira Miyawaki.

The dense planting of different native species helps create the natural layers of a forest right from the start and can help the forest grow up to 10 times faster than traditional planting methods allow.

Organizers from Reforest London were happy with the turnout from both Fanshawe and the wider London community.

“We’ve got almost 100 volunteers registered for each section that we have,” said Devon Way, their Environmental Programs Assistant. “It’s really awesome to get the community involved, and that they understand a bit more why it’s important to have these plantings, and people are able to come back and see the trees they’ve planted and the impact that they’ve made.”

With the fast growth rate of this type of forest, it won’t be long before students can see that impact–Buelow says that in about five years there should be a decently vegetated space.

Volunteers at the event were enjoying themselves, chatting and laughing with one another as they dug and planted. One volunteer said that planting trees and gardening are things she often does back home.

“For me, I just recently came back from Africa,” said Alphonsina, one of the planters. “So, it’s something I am used to doing, this kind of work.”

Still, she said digging the first hole was a bit tough.

“That one I took so long to dig,” she said, pointing to a small freshly planted tree. “But this one didn’t take that much, now that I’m getting used to what I’m doing…Yeah, so it’s not hard. It’s very nice, I’m enjoying it.”