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Before the wedding tower, ventilation ditches will be created in the plane tree grove from autumn and filled with a special substrate. The renovation should take place in three phases.
The city of Darmstadt will start the renovation of the plane tree grove on Mathildenhöhe, which has been planned for several years in autumn. The magistrate decided. The renovation concept also provides for the “prompt replacement of 40 trees with severely restricted vitality and no long-term lifespan”. According to a message from the city, the plane trees to be newly planted have already been prepared in a tree nursery for two years with a special crown cut especially for the plane tree grove.
According to a tree-related and pedological study presented in 2019, 78 of the 178 existing trees, i.e. around 44 percent, are in a “good to very good condition” and have a “high conservation value”. With another 60 plane trees, about a third of the population, the vitality status is “satisfactory”. These trees are expected to be viable and sustainable for at least ten years. Due to greater damage, however, these trees must be expected to require more maintenance. However, 40 plane trees, many of them younger, showed extensive damage and could probably only be preserved for a maximum of five to ten years. These 40 trees are now to be replaced according to the city’s ideas.
The renovation concept provides for ditches to be dug in a grid lengthways and crossways between the trees on an area of around 5350 square meters. These trenches are then to be filled with a special substrate and also equipped with ventilation pipes in order to supply the tree roots with water, nutrients and, above all, air. This should take place over a period of two years in three renovation phases in order not to excessively impair the root areas of the existing trees to be preserved.
The aim of the renovation work is “to preserve this special place to live and popular play and recreation space for the citizens of our city in the long term,” said Mayor Jochen Partsch and head of the green space, Barbara Akdeniz (both Greens).
In June 2019, Partsch (Greens) announced during an information event that 1.2 million euros were available for the renovation of the grove, which was once created within a landscape garden around 1830.
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