Hi Chris
I'm not clear whether you are protecting existing trees or creating a medium
to plant new ones.
A solid non deformable surface may not be a bad idea depending on other
factors. These will include species, available rooting depth, soil type and
bulk density and other soil factors. Drainage is important in these types of
surfacing as you will need to use a water input to increase soil oxygen
levels because CO2 cannot diffuse to the soil surface. The use of water
input needs to be considered very carefully.
With regard to the business of root formation beneath hard surfacing there
are two very good papers on the use of radar to detect rooting patterns
beneath paving including some impressive results by some Czech bloke- I have
the reference at home if you want it- and a paper in Landscape below Ground
Vol 1 or 2 describing how roots develop below grass verges and paving (from
memory!).
AS has been used on Poundbury in West Dorset, it looks good to me but the
new trees have only been in for 3-4 years. Ive used it on three schemes
where we needed to create a sub base that would meet County standards for
them to adopt the road/footpath and there were existing trees. They are
recent schemes so no results to date, but the trees are being monitored.
Richard Nicholson
Views:
The views expressed in this electronic communication are those of the writer
and are not, unless otherwise stated, the views of East Dorset District
Council.
Confidentiality:
The addressee(s) of this electronic communication shall treat its contents in
confidence and take all reasonable steps to ensure that the contents are not
accessed or made available to any third party. No liability arising from
unauthorised access to the information contained in this electronic
communication whilst stored on any computer system or electronic storage
media outside of its direct control shall be accepted by East Dorset District
Council.
Virus checking:
Whilst all reasonable steps have been taken to ensure that this electronic
communication and its attachments whether encoded, encrypted or otherwise
supplied are free from computer viruses, East Dorset District Council accepts
no liability in respect of any loss, cost, damage or expense suffered as a
result of accessing this message or any of its attachments.
--
The UK Tree Care mailing list
To unsubscribe send mailto:uktc-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxx.co.uk
