Cuyptuin, Roof Top Blues in Amsterdam

We had quite a stormy spring here in Amsterdam. The two small trees (Acer Cappadocicum Rubrum) had grown very hard the last few years and I already start wondering if they had been ankered well enough by the gardener who created the garden. She had put tree poles around both trees, but with only 50cm depth they didn’t had a solid base. So during the storms I saw the crowns of both trees bending deeply and one morning both trees had fallen down completely.
It was quite a difficult discussion how I could save the trees. Meanwhile I had legal conflicts with both the city council and the landlord about the garden and none of the two wanted to discuss the tree problem with me and warned me beforehand I wasn’t allowed to span cables to upright the trees again. As I expected visitors on the ‘open garden days’ later this month I decided my garden guests where more important for me then the sensitive hearts of civil servants. I connected some strong cables at several points on the surrounding walls and secured the trees between those cables. I was very content with the result. Especially because I expect the cables to be climbed by climbing plants in anticipation of the delayed building of the pergola.