For the second Love your Yew Week last month, in collaboration with the Ancient Yew Group, Caring For God’s Acre (the conservation charity for burial grounds across the UK) asked those who had the good fortune to have a yew or two to look after, to look down at the ground beneath their yew tree.
“The theme for 2026 is to clear beneath the canopy, removing all objects, including at least a metre beyond the canopy, as the roots can extend further than the branches. February is a good time of year to carry out any work on yew trees, before birds are nesting and hopefully a time of year that is not too busy with other tasks.”
We were urged to join in, as younger yews benefit from care too, even if our yew trees are not veteran.
What followed on their webpage was a whole set of instructions as to how to care for yew trees – plus a request to send in photographs of work undertaken.
And so here are the photos of the Before & After Yews as pictured on the Caring For God’s Acre website – taken by Tim O’Carroll, member of the volunteer working party of the Cherishing Sidmouth Cemeteries project:
You can certainly see the difference between how abandoned the young yew looked before the working party set to rescuing it – and how happy the tree looks now in its full glory.
Thank you Tim and the team!
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