See a splash of red paint on the top of a young tree’s stake this summer? It means the tree was planted this year, and it is asking you for water.
Wandsworth resident and Putney.news reader Lalage Percival spotted it on trees near her and got in touch to spread the word. “It’s ALL the trees, newly planted this year,” she said. “But to be honest, all young trees need a lot of water.” Cards have already gone up on some of the trees she’s found, asking passers-by to help out.
The fix is simple. A few buckets of water a week, ideally in the evening or at night when less of it evaporates, is usually enough to see a young tree through a dry spell. Loosen the soil around the base first if it has hardened, so the water actually soaks in rather than running off.
It doesn’t need to be fresh water, either. Old bathwater or washing-up water works just as well, as long as it isn’t too dirty. “You don’t need to use fresh water,” Lalage said. “You can use bath water, washing up water, ie any so-called ‘grey’ water.”
Not a warning sign
The paint itself isn’t a distress signal. It is the council’s own code for the year a tree was planted, a way of tracking thousands of trees across the borough as they grow. New trees are marked at the top of the stake so contractors, and now volunteers and residents too, know at a glance which ones are still in their vulnerable early years.
That system exists because Wandsworth cannot water every young tree itself, not reliably, not in a dry summer. The council does run its own aftercare programme, but the two sides don’t quite agree on how long it lasts. Wandsworth Tree Wardens, the volunteer group that first flagged the appeal, say the council’s watering contract covers a tree’s first three years. The council’s own website currently states a shorter aftercare period of 24 months, with watering carried out “as and when necessary.” Either way, a young tree left to face a heatwave alone, particularly outside that window, is exactly where residents come in.
Wandsworth’s tree wardens
Wandsworth Tree Wardens have been doing this since 1990, when the group was set up as part of the Tree Council’s National Tree Warden Scheme, a nationwide effort to give neighbourhoods eyes and ears on the trees around them. More than 80 volunteers are active across the borough today, all unpaid, and in 2019 the group won the environment category at the Wandsworth Civic Awards.
Their work goes well beyond watering appeals. Volunteers have planted an English oak on Wandsworth Common, run a fruit tree scheme across nine local primary schools, and helped survey the borough’s trees as part of a national tree health project that drew in hundreds of volunteers. When Wandsworth Common marked its 150th anniversary, the group’s fundraising appeal for new trees on the common raised £12,000.
Behind them, Wandsworth’s tree-planting has scaled up sharply. Tree Wardens say the council used to plant somewhere between 200 and 400 trees a year as a matter of routine, aside from one exceptional year, 2017/18, when more than 1,000 went in. By March this year, the council was describing 1,000 new trees a year as its ongoing programme, and its current biodiversity plan sets a target of around 1,200 for 2025/26 alone: 800 on roads and paths, 200 in parks, and 200 on housing estates.
That growth is deliberate. Wandsworth’s Wild Wandsworth biodiversity plan, running to 2031, treats street trees as part of the borough’s answer to hotter summers and heavier winter rain. “Every sponsored tree helps create healthier habitats, supports local wildlife, provides shade in increasingly warm summers and helps soak up excess rainwater during wetter winters,” said Paul White, the council’s then-cabinet member for environment when a new tree-sponsorship scheme, Trees for Streets, launched in March.
More trees planted each year also means more young, vulnerable ones at exactly this fragile stage, which is part of why this appeal has become something of an annual ritual. The council ran an almost identical one in July 2022, in similar dry conditions, pointing out even then that Wandsworth was among the first councils in the country to set up a tree warden network.
Nobody is entirely sure how many trees Wandsworth looks after in total. Tree Wardens’ own website puts the figure at roughly 52,000, excluding private gardens. A council biodiversity page currently gives a borough total of 62,000. The discrepancy looks more like the result of different surveys and counting methods over time than any real disagreement about the scale of the job, but no single figure has been confirmed.
How to help
If you spot a tree with a fresh paint mark near you, a bucket or two of water a week, ideally poured on in the evening, will genuinely help it through the summer. Grey water is fine. If a tree looks distressed or damaged, the council’s Tree Team can be contacted at trees.wandsworth@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk.
Beyond the watering appeal, Wandsworth Tree Wardens are always looking for new volunteers, and the council’s Trees for Streets scheme lets residents sponsor a new street tree. Between them, that’s the red paint mark’s actual story: not a warning, but an invitation.
