[A Forest Tale] greg27 – secluded river red gums

[MJL]

Hey Greg,
I am all for experimentation and creativity in this comp but Kirky took the words right out of my typing fingers ... these gums drink like fish and a bit more... I am not sure how you’d ever keep the water up to them!

Of course, whatever floats your boat but I reckon it’ll be difficult so go in with your eyes wide open.


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[greg27]

Cheers both for the warning. I did consider watering and thought about rigging up a small solar-powered water pump with drippers, or drilling some holes in the slab, filling them with pieces of sponge and then keeping the slab in a shallow (maybe glass to be fancy?) tray; water would then be drawn up similar to a wicking bed.

I have no idea how effective or practical either of these will be but could be fun to experiment with. In the early days of the comp I vaguely considered a running creek using a water pump but that could be a little much.

[KIRKY]

Not sure how big that slab is but you want something like the Maca trays should be able to find something in the $2 dollar shops.
Cheers
Kirky

[greg27]

I decided to have a go at grinding out the slab to create more of a pot rather than just sitting the trees on top. I think it'll be a bit of an ongoing process - here we are after about 20 minutes and half a grinding disc:

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This of course gives me less of a planting area than my kitty litter tray, so time to repot and move the trees around.

The trees before I started:

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They came out of the tray as one big slab, so plenty of healthy (tangled) roots there:

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I separated each tree and trimmed the roots a fair bit, but didn't worry too much about untangling them - a natural setting on a rock doesn't need to look too perfect or neat IMO. I made a rough tracing of my plantable area and drew it on the inside of the tray to help me place the trees:

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Special shout-out to my supervisor for keeping me in line. I stuck some wooden skewers down to give me something to wire the trees to:

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,..and then roughly plopped in the trees to suit the new planting area, then backfilled with plain old potting mix (I don't need/want too much drainage for these):

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I'll leave them alone again now to recover a bit.

[Ryceman3]

I like the idea with the slab ... I think this will look the goods when you get them onto it.

[greg27]

Thanks R3, I hope you're right. I'm hoping that once they're on the slab the placement of each tree looks a little more random than it does in the square tray.

I've replanted them quite low in the current tray so when I eventually transfer them to the slab I'll be able to expose some (hopefully) interesting-looking roots and bases.

[greg27]

So I kind of forgot about this tree, and this competition. I haven't had much time to spend on my plants lately and this one was a casualty of that. I had left some wire on a bit too long, and had let other things grow a bit too straight and thick, so this afternoon I cut off everything I didn't like, leaving me with some twigs in a cat litter tray. I'll leave things to regrow and hopefully will get something to work with.

[MJL]

At least they are well shaped twigs in a cat litter tray ….


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[greg27]

A couple of minor setbacks for my secluded gums...

Each stick responded with a bunch of new growth after being cut back. Unfortunately said growth was stripped off one night by a hungry something(s).

I've had issues with a pesky something (maybe a possum?) digging holes in some of my pots. These little trees were disturbed quite a bit shortly after having their new growth chomped.

Shortly after the holes incident a pesky something (most likely my cat) knocked the tray off of its shelf which spelt the end for these trees. I replanted them after I noticed the damage (possibly a couple of days later) but they didn't make it.

Thanks for the motivation to start my first group Mark. This one didn't end well but I'll give it another go one day!

[Matt S]

That's a shame Greg, I liked the way this was developing. Still, you have an interesting slab for the future.

[terryb]

I've had issues with a pesky something (maybe a possum?) digging holes in some of my pots.

I've had the same thing. Thought it may have been blackbirds but it also may be rodents. Nothing left to eat in my vegetable patch at this time

[Keels]

That's a bummer mate. It was looking so good too. Hope you start another one soon

[MJL]

Bummer Greg! Thanks for trying though.


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