This year, there is something of the sort on Chantilly Way, here in Epsom. Rather more elaborate planting than Lambeth, with strimmer protector at the bottom, feeding tube up the side, the business. The line on the ticket here though was not to phone someone if you were worried, but rather, in the dry spells, to give the young trees a couple of buckets of water yourself.
As it happened a young mum was coming up the road with two small children, no doubt headed for one of the expensive houses on or in what had been the Long Grove Hospital, and carrying a large plastic bottle of water - perhaps a couple of gallons or so - down from the nearby Tesco Express - and presumably rich enough to disdain tap water.
My thought was that while she might trudge up the road with water for her, it was rather unlikely that she would trudge up the road with water for the tree. She did not look the sort. I could not think of the right sort of comment to make, something which would encourage without irritating, in the few seconds which were my window of opportunity, so I held my peace.
The tree looked healthy enough but I am clearly not cut out to be a tree warden as I completely failed, at the time, to notice the browning on the trunk, clearly visible in the illustration. It looks as if someone or something has been scraping the bark - so presumably not from the sort of family which would trudge about with water.
Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/tree-care.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment