Improve your security fencing with the right mix of plants

A palisade security fence with a convenient foothold at the bottom! This shows a common problem, in this case planting thorny bushes along the fence. When the hedge is under the tree it begins to fade away. What is needed is a barrier in the form of a variety of plants, 70% thorny and 30% non-thorny, deceiving an intruder into thinking there’s a gap but then coming up against something thorny again. Also make sure that plants in shady areas get enough water otherwise there will be another weak link.

 

The urban 'topping' menace is defacing our coastal towns





Trees and plants on municipal ground which have
been cut and topped for the benefit of a neighbour’s
 sea view.

The “topping” (cutting off the top) of beautiful indigenous trees like Cape ash, Cheesewood and Milkwood for the sake of a view of the sea is a phenomenon in Plettenberg Bay and elsewhere which Charles Reitz calls “an insult to our culture”. He insists that this tragedy has been allowed to continue due to ignorance and the resulting arrogance prone to all classes of property owners.

“There should be an environmental officer in this town who reacts to the first sound of a chainsaw. There are some trees that have been topped many times by people who think the trees can simply grow back again. Eventually they cannot because they run out of energy, and as a result their shady canopy is lost, with all the birds and other creatures that depend on them. Invasive plants then thrive on the additional sunlight and take over.”

A Cheesewood Pittosporum viridiflorum which has

been repeatedly topped, providing sunshine

 to alien plants which flourish below.

This would not happen as easily as it does if the people involved employed suitably trained experts who are able to deal with large trees in a way which allows them to remain in place while also offering a “framed” view which is preferable to the “open sea view” - an obsession found all along the coast, turning potentially leafy towns and villages into monstrosities by the sea. There have even been cases where neighbours have poisoned or ring-barked trees next door. The alternative is simple cooperation between neighbours and the services of qualified tree-surgeons or arborists.

“Now it’s too late, in many cases,” laments Charles. “A lovely and sophisticated town like Plett almost spoiled because a sea view is more important than beautiful trees close to our homes. Many people doing this could be wealthy, educated folk who might complain of the lack of insight in this regard on the part of our indigenous communities. It is the result of a culture of fear – fear of vermin, fear of snakes, fear of nature.”

What is arboriculture?

 

Charles Reitz preparing to remove a palm tree from
an unsuitable position in a garden.

Arboriculture is the cultivation, management and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines and other perennial woody plants. It is both a practice and a science.

The science of arboriculture studies how these plants grow and respond to cultural practices and to their environment. The practice of arboriculture includes cultural techniques such as selection, planting, training, fertilization, pest and pathogen control, pruning, shaping, and removal.

 

A person who practices or studies arboriculture can be called an arborist or an arboriculturist. A 'tree surgeon' is more typically someone who is trained in the physical maintenance and manipulation of trees and therefore more a part of the arboriculture process rather than an arborist as such.

Risk management, legal issues and aesthetic considerations have come to play prominent roles in the practice of arboriculture.

Arboriculture is primarily focused on individual woody plants and trees maintained for permanent landscape and amenity purposes, usually in gardens, parks or other populated settings, by arborists, for the enjoyment, protection, and benefit of human beings. It falls under the general umbrella of horticulture.

There is, of course, a difference between urban tree management and forest management. In this blog we are primarily concerned with urban tree management as opposed to forest tree management, although forest management can and will be dealt with as well.