The Corona del Mar Business Improvement District has replanted about 18 tree wells that were ravaged by dogs, thieves and harsh weather following a summertime beautification project that filled about 100 wells in the village.
“The time we planted was about the worst time,” said C. Scott Palmer. “It was the hottest six weeks of the year. They got blasted pretty fast.”
Many plants were trampled because the tree wells line up with parking spaces, so people leaving their cars were stepping onto the new plants, Palmer said.
“That was by far and large the most damage,” he said. “The second was dogs; dogs just go and ravage them.”
Some of the plants were stolen, or died and were removed by business owners.
B.I.D. volunteers inspected all the tree wells about two weeks ago and identified the wells that needed replanting or repairs to the irrigation systems. At the group’s September board meeting, members voted to approve $1,887 for the work.
The tree wells were planted in July as part of a beautification project; read our story here. Many business owners plant tree wells and tend them, but most village tree wells had become filled with cigarette butts and bark.
The B.I.D. considered installing artificial turf in Corona del Mar’s tree wells had samples installed in two tree wells in the 2800 block of East Coast Highway in January 2010. Later the group decided that fake grass was “considered inconsistent with the aesthetic that is desired in Corona del Mar.”
Within a few weeks of the July planting, however, many of the tree wells’ plants were dead, dying or missing; read our story here.
It will take about six months for the plants to become established, board members said.
“I think another six months or year max, they should really be in full bloom,” said Bernie Svalstad, chairman of the CdM B.I.D.
Board member Scott Laidlaw said the plants would have extra irrigation for the next few months.
“I think we all kind of expected this tweaking,” he said.
