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Grumpy / Hammering in tram trees that won’t survive

Welcome to Northbourne Avenue… the new “long, whippy, pot-bound eucalypts”. Photo by Cedric Bryant

I HOPE the authorities in charge of the light rail project know more about engineering than they do about tree planting.

Long, whippy, pot-bound eucalypts don’t appreciate being moved from sheltered nurseries to windswept sites.

Even less do they like being hammered into tough ground and poisoned by alkaline concrete rubble.

I suggest the authorities invest in an equal number of $2 seedlings and tuck them next to the advanced trees.

Then commuters can watch trees growing instead of trees dying

And ‘CityNews’ gardening writer CEDRIC BRYANT is equally distraught…

THE tree planting on Northbourne Avenue has now commenced on the tramway. And it is madness.  

They are being planted while construction is still going on with huge machinery, still pouring concrete and no proper soil preparation.

I have been told (but cannot yet confirm) that the trees are root bound having been grown in rigid pots and the holes dug with an auger – an absolute no-no! The method of planting is out of the ark. Even the trees  are tall, spindly specimens.

 

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One Response to Grumpy / Hammering in tram trees that won’t survive

Chris says: 24 April 2018 at 2:10 pm

I attended a lecture at the Botanical Gardens on 28/4/16 by the horticultural firm engaged to handle the landscaping and tree replacement. They described how each new tree would be placed into specially prepared soil 1m deep and 2m diameter. Is this happening?

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