I know, those extremely hot and dry summers in recent years have wreaked havoc on the German forests populated by trees simply not made for what is becoming more and more a Mediterranean climate here. The immune systems of the trees are weakened and they succumb to parasites they dealt with before. We have a beech tree in our garden, probably close to 60 years old and probably up to 70 feet high, it had little foliage last year, even less this year (it was always fine before). In an attempt to save it, we had the trunk painted white last fall so it would absorb less heat, it couldn't save it. Located close to a street, it's roots are no longer stable (almost all micro roots, so important for the trees water and nourishment supply, have died) and we'll have to cut it down in a few weeks. Good bye tree, welcome firewood!
Most people do everything to kill their trees secretly so they get a permission to cut them down if the tree "
takes up too much light", "
hurts the lawn", "
produces too many dry leaves in fall" or "
roots and branches begin damaging structures" (Germany being Germany, you just can't cut an old tree down in suburban and urban areas if you don't like it anymore, you need a municipal permission to do so). And we tried to save this bugger (painting its bark white cost almost as much as cutting it down now) and are totally distraught it has to go! The old trees in our garden were one of the reasons why we moved here in the first place.
We'll plant something that is already sub-adult to replace it. Something more heat-resistant. Some oak species might be an option (though not the usual German type) or perhaps a maple species. It's too early for palm trees yet, though we used to be an area with an unusually high dinosaur density (no joke, one of Western Europe's most important fossil sites - the UNESCO-protected Messel Pit, a former open-cast oil shale mining site - is nearby!).
BRING THAT TREE BACK OR ELSE!
