A Match Made in Heaven
15/12/2018 - 00:00
The Carl Benz and Ferdinand Porsche streets, part of the new extension of the Bremen industrial park near the port of Bremen in Germany offered less than ideal growing conditions for the oaks and lime trees the design agency HBI Hiller + Begemann Ingenieure GmbH included in its landscaping plan.
Yet, the site’s sandy soil was a match made in heaven for TerraCottem. The site in Bremen also suffered from soil compaction caused by the civil works, wind erosion and low rainfall.
Plant holes of 2 x 2 x 1.5 meters were mechanically dug and part of the excavated soil was mixed with substrate. The plant holes were filled with this mixture in two different layers. The bottom 75cm consists in a mixture of 50 per cent quartz sandstone 8/32 and 50 per cent of the excavated soil enriched with 3kg/m³ tree alginate, 100 litres/m³ Agriperl and 2kg/m³ TerraCottem Universal. The top layer has 50 per cent quartz sandstone 8/32, 50 per cent DIN 18915 tree sand topped up with 100 litres/m³ Agriperl 3-6mm, 1kg/m³ Oscorna Universal fertiliser, 1.5 kg/m³ Luzian stone flour, 3kg/m³ Bentonite clay and 1kg/m³ TerraCottem Universal.
Mr Hiller, the design company’s site manager commented: “We increased the TerraCottem rate to 2kg/m³ in the lower layer in order to further stimulate root growth and increase the soil’s water retention capacity and aeration and thus prevent roots from growing upwards.
“Two years after the planting was competed, we did our first evaluation and of the 218 planted trees, only five had died which gave us a survival rate of almost 98 per cent. We continued to monitor the trees for several years and each time appreciated the benefits of TerraCottem. This was especially noticeable during the dry spells when the entire environment was bone dry and brown while the oaks and lime trees were lush and green.”
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 TC25yr - 16. A Match Made in Heaven | 252.97 KB |
