The reversion on this competing leader threatens to dominate the canopy if not removed. The planting appears good, straight trunk, well staked. It is always what is below ground, that is not readilly visible, that’s critical.

When I was still working for the city of Portland Parks, one of my jobs, for a number of years, was to do design reviews and construction inspection on big capital Parks projects being built from scratch downtown including South Waterfront, Caruthers, Jamison Square, Director’s Square,Tanner Springs and The Fields. I’d attend meetings with our project managers and the landscape architects, charged with assessing the appropriateness of their plant choices given their requirements, the site conditions, our capacity to provide the necessary maintenance over time, whether their combination presented conflicts, without commenting on the aesthetic of their designs, which was considered outside my expertise. Sometimes I was asked to do the same for projects in other areas. I’d visit the project sites regularly to observe prep work, planting and follow-up care, suggesting changes to the contractor and writing up my report. The architects generally approved, or rejected, the plant stock coming into a job, accepting or rejecting substitutions. It was my job to make sure that plants were properly cared for on site before planting, the prep appropriate, that they were planted properly and cared for over the first year of establishment. Continue reading →