[Ernst Glaeser]

Agree, made similar experience, not only in China but also in the MENA region.

[Ernst Glaeser]

That’s why I had originally differentiated between Concept Plan (Rendering to sell your idea) and the Planting Plan who’s making the price. Our forefathers had that “Generation Look”. Unfortunately that got lost over the decades.

[Ernst Glaeser]

Hi Craig, I had given a RoT a bit further down. Footprint at plant age of 15 years for concept. Common practice in Germany.   

[Ernst Glaeser]

I have learned that one should show the footprint of a plant expected after 15 years off planting. It sounds right to me as plants and elevations are the space creating elements and will hardly ever change. This accounts for the concept. When it comes to planting plans I believe one should aim for a surface closure to be achieved within one year – having the necessary maintenance of soil, plants, and effect in mind. It is like putting grass down by seeds. A 100% coverage is not achieved over night.  

[Ernst Glaeser]

Plants don’t come out off a form. Every species is different and should be addressed accordingly. We LS should know the material which makes us unique to the rest of the civil-, architecture, electrical-, structural-, and so on, world.

[Ernst Glaeser]

What I’ve read above and putting my career path against it I find that it is full of similarities.

Take it, you are not alone. You are at a point where you need to prove to yourself that what you want to do and what you are doing is are satisfying your professional believes as well as feeding your commitments outside of work.

Here a brief of my vita: arborist, natural gifted urban planner, LS construction company, LS design, LS site supervision, self employed LS construction and nursery, warehouse worker, LS design, LS design development, LS PM/CM, and all in 10 cities (towns) and 7 different countries spread over the globe (states). This is a yo-yo life or roller coaster.

I read the other day someone stating that one door closes and the next is opening. The pain in the .. is the hallway.

[Ernst Glaeser]

I had a close look on all the baggy watering systems. They look ugly, they are time consuming to fill, and they only work for newly planted trees and shrubs. The only system I can think off, when no shelf irrigation system can be installed or operated is a flood system. This spreads the water best to where it is needed, at the drip line of the plant. Stupid little watering rings around a trunk only lead to trunk rotting.

[Ernst Glaeser]

I agree with Rory.

Each project, each tree type, each tree size – caliper and/or height (crown as well as trunk), have their right of existence, usage, and aesthetics.

Streetscape trees with a clear trunk height of just 3 to 4 m and small caliper with tree grate look much bigger with the proper stakes designed and installed.

Trees with shallow root system, trunk decoration all the way down, planted as a solitaire will look best when one uses a sub-surface system.

Big tree planting will need a more structural support best provided by multiple guying.

First function for all is to hold the tree stable in the ground so that the new root growth is not disturbed.

The rest is secondary aesthetics, extra function, client request, or time saver c&p.

[Ernst Glaeser]

Hi Jason, I got to disagree here. No matter if bare-rooted, container grown, or root-balled, no matter if just the calliper of a pencil or a mature Methusalem, as long as the tree is exposed to the wind this movement caused to the root system will disturbe the new growth of the adventive roots and with that harm the plant. The root system and the trunk have to be fixed to the ground until the tree is established. The way to do it and the length of period for it to stay is more an asthetic issue.

[Ernst Glaeser]

I fully agree with Walter. Had one year in Nanjing with a local LA firm and a posh American name. Went to Shenzhen after that to join a local LA firm connected to an Australian architecture firm. Here I failed after a hand full of month because of internal animosity issues with some locals and my outspoken attitude. I loved the food; the rest was for me just another way in getting back into the swing working for a company not being mine. Everything is via translator and when the boss tells them they tell you fabricated truth. Since a year I try to get a paper from both companies stating when I had worked there and in what position. No response whatsoever. The working moral is totally different to the western world.   

[Ernst Glaeser]

Another landscape friend of mine commented: “Hello stranger  – great article on martha  – thanks   – saw it on the weekend  – I was in Abu dhabi  – its is a parterre garden – viewed only from above  – and not used” 

[Ernst Glaeser]

Hi now the file as promissed

[Ernst Glaeser]

A friend of mine commented on it as follows: “Your email just reminded me about a project we designed and built back home in Colombia. Take a look at the attached file. The project was executed on 2008/2009.”

[Ernst Glaeser]

Hi Rob,

The reaction was two-fold. Number one was about the remake and glorifications of something some people of us had seen in our past. Number two about the way the MENA-locals make themself struggle to implement a “Western” design into their environment and vision of development. 

[Ernst Glaeser]

Doing work in the MENA region now by almost 15 years I’m surprised how many experts are out there to comment. Roland is right, I’ve seen this in my Grandmother’s, actually in my uncle,s garden, 50 years back. Why do you spill coffee, you should spill tears. Abu Dhabi and LEED? They have meanwhile developed their own rating system, Estidama – Pearl rating, bend to fit the local needs. And yes, they collect names as others collect stamps. And is it still the original design? My experiance here is that the international consulting conglomaration is f..ing up every design. The vision and thoughts don’t go further than the imagination of Autocad. 3-D visualisation? What is that? Esthetics? It has to be structurally sound. Utility ROWs are dictating the way to go. Design developer get stuck by the insiration they get when they look out of their home town window. I got to give her that. And the rest is given to the project by the contractors. Push, push, push. Bigger, higher, wider, “don’t teach me how to live here. Why do you want to tell me that I have to live in a dessert. I want the grass. I have the dough.

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