It seems that one of the winter storms has had a casualty in our garden! On of the fir trees by the drive has fallen, but it was not very pretty and it fell on the area un-affectionately known as “the cemetery”, so that’s all right.
The picture adequately describes what a small root system it had, and considering it was a 30ft tree I guess it’s not surprising that it toppled over.
It does mean, though, that our garden is more open to the road, so I will have to think of ways to mitigate this accident and make the most of it. I’m pretty sure we already have small-ish plants in that area that will be able to bush out and give coverage within a few years, so I’m not too worried.
On the plus-side this will give us some fire wood to keep us warm! (Though probably not this winter, since it needs to season.) So tomorrow I will play the chain-saw gardener and have some fun with that.
Nice to have something good come out of what appears to be a problem…interesting to see mild winter in so many places
Right now it almost looks like there was no point in lifting the glads and dahlias, though of course normally January and February are the coldest months here, so the frost might still come. Time will tell…
Many evergreens have shallow roots or small root balls. That is why it is suggested to plant them in groups, so they become supporting to each other. It is a fate I see often with solitary conifers.
It was actually surrounded by other trees on all sides except where it fell, so it was in no way solitary, but I must admit I was a bit chocked at how small the roots were. No surprise, then, that it fell during a storm that was powerful enough to snap another fir tree in our neighbour’s garden!
On the island where I go in the summer, the woods are all fir and spruce. Big storms have started to blow them down and now they are all going to go because they have such small root systems and they hold each other up.
That’s one of the dangers of monoculture, I guess. It’s interesting, though, to think such fairly large trees can have such shallow roots; in a way it’s surprising that it’s been able to stay up for as long as it has!