Palas por Pistolas - update

You might remember that way back in 2010, we were lucky enough to be paid a visit by Mexican artist Pedro Reyes - who's been planting trees all over the world as part of his incredible Palas por Pistolas project.

The walnut tree we planted with him is settling into Mabley Green nicely, and now Pedro has listed all the trees on his new project website. Check it out here, and take a look at Mabley Green's tree here.

Make walnuts, not war.

Our tree-planting with Pedro Reyes on the 18th was amazing! The Hackney Tree Gang generously donated three hours out of their busy morning to get stuck in and keep an eagle eye on our planting technique. And everyone (including Pedro) helped dig the hole and get our new, 10-foot walnut tree safely planted.

Photo courtesy of Gareth Wilson.

Photo © Mark Blower

Pedro and his Palas Por Pistolas project are both totally inspiring, and it's an honour to have a tree planted in Mabley Green as part of it. AND, he brought one of the spades he made from melted-down guns with him all the way from Mexico, which he's generously donated to us.

Photo © Mark Blower

It's a beautiful object - if you'd like to see it (and even put it to good use on the meadow), come along to our next volunteering day on Saturday November 6th!

Tree planting with The Serpentine Gallery + Pedro Reyes - Friday 15 October

As part of next weekend's Map Marathon, the Serpentine Gallery have invited inspiring Mexican artist Pedro Reyes to London to plant a tree as part of his incredible Palas Por Pistolas project. Pedro saw our meadow online and loved it. So he's chosen Mabley Green as his planting spot!

Palas Por Pistolas is an ongoing project Pedro started in Culiacán, a city in western Mexico with an extraordinarily high rate of gunshot deaths. So to help combat this violence, he held a gun amnesty to encourage local people to hand in their firearms. In total, he collected 1527 weapons (40% of which turned out to be high-powered automatic weapons exclusively for military use), which he melted down and turned into shovels. Now he's using them to plant 1527 trees across the world, and showing all the locations with a Google Map. AND the first and only tree to be planted for the project will be in our very own Mabley Green!

Because we like to keep things local, The Hackney Community Tree Nursery have kindly agreed to give us one of their young saplings - a walnut tree, grown right here in Hackney. So as well as linking our park to a fantastic global artwork, in a few years our new tree will give us a delicious walnut harvest too.

Come help us plant this historic tree!
Pedro and a curator from The Serpentine will be at Mabley Green from 10am on Friday 15 October. So if you'd like to come meet the artist and take part in the planting, come along! We won't be in the meadow itself, but in the main part of Mabley Green - between the overpass and the boulder (see the map below).

Also, our new tree will require special attention until it's properly established - so we'll need lots of people to help out by watering it. If you'd like to get involved, just email mableymeadow@gmail.com and we'll work out a roster (afterall, we don't want to drown it with kindness!).