When we were originally designing Enchanted Woods, Gary Smith, our landscape architect drew an image of an upside down tree. He never shared the image with the rest of the design team because he thought it would be irresponsible to cut down a living tree and flip it upside down. A few years ago, our arborist, John Salata, discovered a standing dead oak tree that he thought might hold possibilities for Enchanted Woods. On seeing the oak, Gary surprised the team by pulling up a drawing that had an uncanny resemblance to John’s dead oak tree.
Building on this excitement, the team developed a plan to install the tree in Enchanted Woods. After several planning sessions and meetings with an engineer, the tree has been lowered and moved to a temporary shelter. Our former arborist, Randy Fisher will be removing the old bark and any dead wood to prepare it for Enchanted Woods (Randy was the creative talent behind the mushrooms in Enchanted Woods). We are pleased to be collaborating with Construct Con, Inc, our original contractors for Enchanted Woods, to prepare a home for the tree in the garden among the azaleas. When the project is done, the upside down tree will look as though it just appeared in Enchanted Woods and will, we hope, delight the children (and parents) who discover it. Look for the tree to appear in the garden late this spring.
