Taking Place In The Trees

What is a landscape architect doing writing about these methods of tree planting and moving? Well, for one thing, I don’t like to waste woody plants. Planting an ingrown-root tree (or even a healthy one) in a new landscape without attending to the tree’s requirements — for rooting space, for decent soil porosity, for adequate moisture, for sufficient gas/air exchange at the root flare, for sufficient light, among other things — can lead to the tree’s being stressed, declining, and dying in relatively short order (a typical urban street tree lasts 7-10 years, and is in decline for most of that time). That seems a waste to me. A tree represents a lot of energy. A tree is a system, as well as a component in a larger system.

And my design work takes place in a larger system, too — that commercial system, where clients hire me to make comfortable, beautiful, gracious outdoor spaces for them. The more knowledgeable I am about these big, organic, living design elements, these systems, the better my built projects will be, and the more sustaining and sustained they will be, as well. If the best advertisement for a landscape architect is the landscape we design, then it makes sense for us to know a lot, and to use what we know, about the biggest elements we use in that landscape. Wait till I start writing about water….