The apartment building where my dad lives lost a modest sized tree a couple of weeks ago when we had some high winds blow through. A good sized truck with a tree spade was there when I arrived today and the operator was getting ready to transplant a new tree where the old one had been. A little while later this is what I saw:
Two things puzzle me about this.
There's a bit of a slope there and I wouldn't expect the tree to exactly conform to it, but that has to be the most bizarre tree planting I've ever seen. There's a good 6" of dirt above the slope on the uphill side and easily 15" on the downhill side. I'm no tree planting expert, but doesn't that seem wrong? Anybody?
The second thing is that it is good that they were smart enough to get the underground cables marked, but it seems kind of stupid to then put a tree directly on top of the water line(blue) and the sprinkler line(white) and a foot or less away from electrical(red) and telecom(orange) cables. I'm sure they were told how deep the cables and pipes were, do you suppose that's why the tree is planted so far above ground? If that's the case, wouldn't you move the tree over about five feet since there's room? Besides, trees get big and roots get deep. Why would you ever plant a tree directly on top of buried cables if you could avoid it?
I know the head maintenance guy there and I find it hard to believe he would do that. I'll ask him in the next week or so, but I suspect one of the nice young kids who work for him is headed for an education.
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