With the health of the nation’s trees still making the headlines and some of our most-loved trees, the oak, horse chestnut and ash, coming under threat from pests and diseases, what better time than National Tree Week to get involved in preserving our country’s treescape?

Each year, since 1975, The Tree Council has marked the beginning of the tree-planting season with National Tree Week, a series of events across the country encouraging people to get outside, get their hands dirty and plant a tree.

As we wrote in our blog during National Tree Week 2012, we’ve planted over 10 acres of woodland around Bannisters’ Farm over the past few years. Having recently had a forestry advisor to check over some of our trees and plantations, we’re thankful that our ash trees are still free of dieback. However, some pesky squirrels have done considerable damage to some of the farm’s newer birch trees. We’ll be planting more over the winter months to replace some of the older birches that have died.

If you want to get involved by planting a tree in your own garden, here’s some useful information. Or you can find out what’s going on in your area on the events map. With the help of voluntary groups, local authorities, schools and an 8000-strong army of Tree Wardens, The Tree Council are hoping to plant a million trees during this season!

You can even take part in a 10-hour Tweet-a-thon taking place on Wednesday 27^th, when a whole host of tree specialists will be taking questions and giving advice on tree planting and care.

So what are you waiting for, get planting (and tweeting)!