These leaves (or blades I'm calling them) are RAZOR-sharp!

We set out this morning (our first day out this week!) to build a small kitchen garden for a regular client in Newton Mearns.  On arrival we discovered the site to still be completely covered in snow and the area where the garden was to be built was unworkable.

The client pointed out a number of trees for us to trans-plant while we there anyway and so we got to task.  Moving the apple tree was no problem nor was the new 10ft Ilex too difficult to plant in; but the young Monkey-Puzzle posed a problem.

Beautiful but dangerous!

The leaves of this tree are thick, tough and scale-like, triangular, 3–4 cm long, 1–3 cm broad at the base, but have razor-sharp edges and tips.  I mean razor sharp!  The tree itself was only 5 foot tall but had been planted in a raised bed far too close to house.  If you have seen these trees around your own neighbourhood then you will know how big they can grow and this really isn’t great for small front garden areas, nor for the house because the tree will block light into it’s windows.

We really cannot get close enough to the tree to dig it out without causing injury to ourselves – genuinely! Next time you see one go up and feel it’s leaves and you will see what I mean!

The solution that we came up with was to tie up the branches of the tree upward into trusses with string, so as to hold all of the branches in a conical shape hugging the trunk – much like how Christmas trees are packaged by netting for ease of transport.  The branches are flexible enough to allow this to work without causing  any harm to the tree itself.  This took a great deal of care not to cut our hands but allowed us to get close enough in to get our spades into the ground near the root-ball.

And it’s that simple!  Not so simple that I’m not calling it a Top-Top though!

We transported it by wheelbarrow and planted it into a space in the perimeter planting that needed to be filled.  The location suited the style of trees nearby, mostly other conifers and pines – but also added some security; there’s no way a burglar could drop over the fence and into this tree without letting go an alarming yelp!

So if you ever come face to face with a young Money-Puzzle tree that you want shifted you’ll know exactly what to do!

A job well done!

Cheers

Nicky Patterson

GardenImprovements.com

Originally posted 2009-02-06 21:06:02. Republished by Blog Post Promoter