Looking west at the row of potted trees on Second Avenue on Feb. 14, 2023.
How do you keep street trees from damaging the sidewalk? You plant them in pots.
That’s what the City of Albany has done on the south side of one block of Second Avenue just east of Lyon Street downtown.
A couple of years ago, in the winter of 2021, the city removed nine 40- or 50-year-old pin oaks there because they were threatening to interfere with the sidewalk and the roof of the adjacent building. The building houses the local offices of Oregon State Department of Human Services.
The plan at the time was to replace the pin oaks with a different species. Because of underground utilities, planting the replacements in the ground was not considered wise.
By last September, when I last thought about that block, the tree wells had been paved over and the sidewalk was still bare, but large pots had been purchased, waiting for planting season.
Now four pots are in place, each with a good-size sapling. The saplings are crepe myrtles, Rick Barnett of Albany Parks told me.
When you google crepe myrtles, the first reference that pops up is from SouthernLiving.com. “This is the premier summer flowering tree of the South,” the site says of crepe myrtles.
The species likes full sun and thrives in heat. When conditions are right, it produces loads of red, pink and white blossoms, according to the online description.
We’ll see how these crepe myrtles do in the next few summers to come. (hh)
P.S. How come there are so many tree stories on this site? Well, when you tour the town on a bike, as I regularly do, trees are one of the things you notice, and this blog is largely about things I see and wonder about.
Crepe myrtle is also one recommended by your local power utility for replacing trees encroaching on power lines.
We have Crepe Myrtle trees growing along the north fence of Lafayette School (29th Ave). They are nice but in recent years moss and lichens have apparently caused a decline in their health. I suspect that after some time these trees will have to be replaced if for no other reason than outgrowing the pots. Insufficient watering will do them in too…
Not a fan of crepe myrtle at all. I wonder why they didn’t plant apple and pear trees? Those have beautiful flowers and grow to the height that the city is looking for. Plus we’d have more fruit to forage downtown.
Great! Trees that require full sun have been planted on the south side of second street pretty close to the building to their south. I am not sure how many hours of the day they will receive “full sun.” Good luck!
(Also, they have swapped out nine pin oaks in favor of four crepe myrtle trees in pots.)
Likes full sun? I don’t think that the north side of a building meets that description.