There was a point some years ago when social media seemed to be overwhelmed by howls of protest about trees getting cut down. Adrian Gatt read the comments with equal measures of outrage and frustration.

One particular source of irritation was the Save the Trees Facebook group. 

The engineer was hardly an expert on trees but he felt it would be so much more effective to do something to replace those that were being cut down, rather than to lament what had already been done.

“Imagine if each of those 3,000 members planted 10 trees each!” he told himself, before pausing to think: “And why not!”

That is how Grow 10 Trees was born: with a passionate vision and not much else. He laughingly admits that his initial attempts were naive, with not enough knowledge about which species to go for and which to avoid at all costs.

Since May 2017, he and his teenage son Nathan have turned his idea into a reality, which is spreading slowly but surely. The G10T site has ratcheted up thousands of members, with around 100 who are intensely involved.

How does it work? Did you know that you need a permit from the Environment and Resources Authority to collect seeds from the wild? Well, as the idea took root – pun intended – Mr Gatt set up a system: he would collect the seeds from dozens of species and offer them online; people would offer to sprout them and once they were well established – after a year or so – he would find somewhere to plant them.

The first two steps were, believe it or not, the easiest. The website (www.g10t.eu) offers information on the species, instructions about the way to sow and the best time to do so, including videos.

And people like Moira Heath were only too happy to help out.

“I won’t take any of the credit! Everything was done by my four-year-old daughter, who was fascinated by the whole thing. We planted holm oak seeds in old milk cartons, in a mixture of soil and compost, and although we lost quite a few over summer, we managed to get these lovely ones,” she said, as she handed them over to Mr Gatt. 

“If you have a south-facing space, then you can grow them. Even a balcony will do fine, although it helps to have a tree to provide shade for them in summer – which is why I suggest putting the cartons in a plastic crate that you can easily move from one place to another,” Mr Gatt suggested, admitting that he had lost hundreds himself until he learned through experience what worked best.

“Best time to plant is from a month after the first rains until April, as it gives the roots a chance to establish themselves before the summer heat. If they can make it till summer, as long as you irrigate them, they should survive.”

So there he was, with his network of around 100 active growers and trees sprouting all over the island – including 1,500 in his own garden. 

What to do with them? He reached out to various councils and the government but got a tepid response at first. He managed to rope in Għargħur mayor Ġiljan Aquilina and dozens of trees were planted on abandoned land at the ‘Top of the World’, replacing invasive species that had been planted there. 

Żurrieq mayor Ignatius Farrugia also got caught up by the enthusiasm of one of the group, Simon Stafrace, and last week, classes of chattering primary school-children were roped in to plant the saplings in two locations.

It is so satisfying to be doing something instead of just moaning

“There is only one thing I insist on: that once they are planted, the council irrigates them, as otherwise it is all for nothing,” Mr Gatt said.

Since the first seedlings were planted in November 2017, Mr Gatt has planted 512 trees – 250 of them from the G10T ‘nursery’, with the help of other NGOs, some of which were also able to inject funds into the project.

With thousands of trees now reaching up to the sky in people’s homes, he is more enthusiastic than ever.

“It is so satisfying to be doing some- thing instead of just moaning,” he says, as he hands a sapling to one of his core helpers, Antoine Sciberras, who plods over in his soil-encrusted Wellington boots to take it over to a group of the schoolchildren.

“And we are making a difference.”

It may indeed be just a small difference but, like the trees themselves, this is one initiative that is certain to grow.

Moira Heath handing a boxful of holm oak saplings to Mr Gatt.

Schoolchildren planting a sapling.