Do the math!

Nah, I'm not expecting it to grow much larger...

Better late than never, I'm starting a new series of posts dealing with "the wrong plant, wrong location" practice I see all too often during my travels across Toronto. Below is a wonderful and particularly egregious example of the triumph of hope over experience:

Oh, Christmas tree!

Firstly, just ignore the white rock "mulch" under the Colorado Blue Spruce. Whether you think it looks ghastly and outdated (it is), let's rather focus on the where this youngster of a tree is planted. 

To our left is the only paved access from the front door to the driveway and backyard. The width is about three feet.

In the foreground is a shared driveway about 15 feet wide.

And, yes, there's a huge mature oak about 6 feet behind (you can see its trunk).

Now consider the typical mature size of this spruce: 50-75 feet high by 10-20 feet wide.

Let's spend a few moments doing the math.

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As your accountant might say when you present her with incomplete receipts in a shoe box, "the math doesn't add up."  Or to borrow that infamous line from the movie "Jaws", "you're gonna need a bigger set of clippers." What, you don't enjoy being caressed by such a spruce on the way to and from the car, carrying groceries into the house, lugging out the hose, etc.?