Kim shows us his childhood playground, the family walnut tree, and how it was brought back to life with deep watering! Kim shows us his favourite tree as a child, a grand old walnut tree in his Mum’s backyard that he and his brothers would climb constantly. This walnut tree started to look a little sick 5 years ago so Kim explains what was done to revive this tree to full health. Kim brought an arborist in who cut the tree back, removing all the dead and dying branches. Kim also tells us why deep watering was responsible for the rejuvenation of this walnut tree. Trees, especially those around lawns, can become lazy by taking up the surface sprinkler water and not searching deeply enough. Getting roots deep helps establish any tree and is easy to do, dig a series of holes around the tree to get the water down to the roots with a posthole digger like the new deep drill from Fiskars and get twisting! Make a hole about 60cm deep, slide in some slotted ag-pipe (this prevents the hole from collapsing), and add some rocks or stones to bulk up the hole. Now you’ve got a direct line to the tree roots where you can hand water, or use the overflow from your rainwater tank. You can even add some fertiliser down the hole to keep the tree happy and growing! Kim explains that trees, like his walnut, are our planets lungs. In expanding cities like Adelaide they are vital in helping cool our environment, so planting more trees and keeping them healthy is in all our best interests! WATCH THE CLIP
