Just a quick post from on the road. My family and I have been traveling through Europe the past week and a half. A bit of a whorl-wind trip combining some vacation and work travel. We started off a week and half ago, flying into Frankfurt. We rented a car and drove to Paris where we spent a couple of days sightseeing. Then it was off to southern France to visit friends that run a bed and breakfast there. This weekend we drove from France to lower Austria where I am attending our biennial International Christmas tree Research and Extension conference. I’ll have a few bits to report from the meeting later but for now I’ll just close with a few random acts of Horticulture from France.
Trees shaped like boxes…
Trees in boxes…
Horsechestnuts. Europe is big on horsechestnuts. Unfortunately most of them are scorched to a crisp and look like crap.
Pollarding. Europe is big on pollarding. Occasionally it’s done well and creates some neat effects. More often, like here, it’s done poorly and just makes a mess.
A green wall. Green roofs and green walls can help to reduce urban heat island effect. This green wall is mainly for show, I think. It’s made up of ferns and other mesic plants and requires constant mist irrigation. Not exactly a sustainable system, but it is dramatic and certainly commands attention.
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Not surprised that the horse chestnuts look so bad. Look how densely they’re planted, and how little root space there is! Talk about drought stress!