Tree Planting Service in East Sussex

Our tree planting service in East Sussex takes in single specimen trees for town gardens, new hedgerows and shelter belts on farmland, and larger woodland schemes. We plant right across the county, and because our tree and hedge planting sits alongside the rest of our tree work we can clear a site, grind out the old stump, and replant it with the same team.

Four Types of Ground in One County

We deal with four quite different growing conditions here, and what thrives in one corner will sulk in another. Up in the north we work inside the High Weald National Landscape, designated back in 1983. On the ridges you have light acid sand that drains almost too freely. Drop into the valleys and you are on Wadhurst clay, heavy and slow, holding water all winter and baking hard in August.

South of the Weald we are onto the chalk of the South Downs National Park, where you often have only a few inches of topsoil over solid rock. Between the two, the Pevensey and Willingdon Levels are reclaimed marsh with a water table high enough to drown roots. Along the coast at Eastbourne, Seaford, and Bexhill, salt on the prevailing south-westerly decides what survives whatever your soil is doing. We work out which of the four you are on before recommending a single tree.

Matching Species to Your Soil

Get the species right and you will still be pleased with the tree in ten years, so this is the part of our tree planting service in East Sussex we spend most time on. On the acid sand of the High Weald we plant sessile oak, silver birch, rowan, holly, sweet chestnut, and Scots pine. On the heavier Wadhurst clay we switch to English oak, hornbeam, field maple, and alder, which handle wet winter ground that would rot the roots of a pine.

We use whitebeam, field maple, yew, beech, hornbeam, and wild cherry on the chalk of the South Downs, because anything wanting acid soil will yellow and stall up there however well you feed it. Near the sea, salt matters more than pH, so we put holm oak, black pine, Swedish whitebeam, hawthorn, sea buckthorn, or tamarisk in the front line. We look at your soil, drainage, and exposure on site first, because a species list drawn up from a postcode is guesswork.

When You Are Legally Required to Replant

Some of our planting is not optional for the customer. If a tree covered by a Tree Preservation Order comes down, including when it is felled because it is dead or dangerous, section 206 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 puts a duty on you to plant a replacement as soon as you reasonably can. Work to a conservation area tree also needs six weeks’ written notice to the council under section 211 before you start.

We plant to landscaping conditions too, where a consent sets out species, sizes, densities, and a maintenance period, and we give you what you need for sign-off. Our page on TPOs and conservation areas explains where you stand, or just ask us. Where a tree has already gone, our stump removal clears the ground so your replacement goes into clean soil.