Arboriculture

Arboriculture: the care and culture of trees…

Formative tree care in the UAE

On my most recent trip to Dubai, I enjoyed walking through some of the new landscapes that emerge as projects are completed.  The UAE, along with most regions of the Middle-east has a rather limited palette of plants to work with (although that is growing as new plants are tried). What struck me, however, was how poor the quality

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Irrigation of native and exotic trees in arid climates

This article first appeared in Pro Landscaper Gulf – a .PDF copy can be seen here on page 12.  It is based on tree consultancy work I have undertaken in Abu Dhabi in recent years. Irrigation is taken as a necessity when landscaping in arid climates.  It is a view that I wouldn’t like to completely

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Pruning hazels for regenerative growth

In my previous post I talked about a regenerative planting methodology for urban landscapes, in which I suggested you would manage, rather than maintain your planting areas. So how exactly do you you do this? Both involve work and the difference is a subtle but important one, in both attitude and application. Think urban forester

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Natural regeneration for urban landscapes

Almost all urban landscapes are contrived and designed, due to their artificial nature and short timescales of development and use.  We see increasing use of mature rootballed trees and extensive hard landscape and this is normal for intense inner urban areas; I do get concerned that the increasing complexity of urban planting systems divorce trees particularly

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Arboriculture in the UAE

Last winter I did some interesting work in Abu Dhabi, concerning the care of trees.  I can’t name one of the projects (a royal palace), but one was Mushrif Central Park undergoing a major redevelopment (and now reopened – March 2015).  In both places I undertook a survey of 100+ broadleaf trees (as opposed to palms),

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Treecare in the Middle-East

I am working as a consulting arborist in the UAE for a couple of large projects.  Whilst there, I have been observing the broad state of the art and there is a long way to go in bringing across current best practice to the Middle-East, and I suspect that is so for many parts of

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