|
bonsaiTALK Expert
Join Date: Apr-2006
Location: Raleigh, NC
Country: US
Posts: 167
|
Collected Urban Juniper
Ok, here is my collection story. I work in a small cluster of single story office buildings. Across the street from my office at an adjacent building they have been reconfiguring the parking lot layout. This of course involves some landscaping. At 7:45am I'm driving by the adjacent office building and notice a backhoe destroying a bank of well established "urban" juniper. As is often the case there was one guy working the backhoe and 4 guys standing around watching. I inquired what they planned to do with the material they were removing and they said it was bound for the dump. I politely asked if I could have some of the material. I told them I'd return ASAP. Fortunately for me there is a Home Depot about two blocks from where I work. I stopped in and bought 2 cubic feet of Sphagnum Peat Moss and some large garbage bag liners. I really wanted Sphagnum Moss and not Peat, but I figured the Peat Moss would be cheaper and would get the collected material home with a chance at survival.
I returned to the site and the backhoe driver was taking a break ( guess he got tired ). They had a truck full of shovels and other equipment and they told me to use whatever I needed. I basically had about 5 minutes before the backhoe driver was going to demolish the rest of the bank. One of the crew actually helped me dig two pieces for collection. I saved as much of the rootball as I could. I offered to pay the guys and they politely refused and told me good luck with my endeavor.
I wrapped up the rootball of each piece in several garbage can liners and drove them over to my building. I filled each of the liners with sphagnum peat and watered thoroughly. I made sure each root ball was wrapped tightly. I placed the collected material under a tree for shade and took them home with me at the end of the day. I spent the better part of the evening getting the two pieces in containers. I used a 50/50 perlite/pine bark mixture.
I've attached some images. There are before and after pictures of the small bank where the junipers were growing. The before picture is actually an identical bank on a different corner of the building. The bank I collected the material from was actually more developed and mature than this bank.
Yes, the Mountain Dew can is retro. It is from my collection of cans obtained when I was deployed overseas... it has Arabic writing on it and is pretty much the exact same size as our 12 oz cans.
|