I was wondering if anyone had any experience growing an arrangement of trees -in the ground- for a forest or Penjing style planting?
I have four or five different junipers that I think would look really cool together. I think I would plant them or heal them into the ground in their pots. I like the idea of making an arrangement that would require slightly less watering and managing.
I’d love to see some examples!
I have experience catering to a wild group of stunted trees that naturally formed a dense, proportional little forest. Over the course of a year I periodically pruned, fertilized, and removed competing weeds to prep it for collection.
The group was incredibly difficult and time consuming to excavate as a whole.
Eventually it will portray a fir-inhabited island in the San Juans or embody the form of some other PNW forest type.
7 mo post collection
After cleaning up dead branches, modest pruning, understory management, and inching the composition into better light.
Something akin to this perhaps.
Or along these lines..
If one wanted to create something similar in ground at home I think it could be done. A potential method is to dig a shallow flat hole, lay down a rot-resistant wooden board, arrange a group of trees, rocks, etc on top; then fill it in with appropriate substrate and moss.
It might be difficult to individually wire each tree once the group is assembled. A less tedious approach may be broadcast clip & grow. See and work the forest as a whole rather than focusing too much on individuals. Be the wind-or whatever damaging agent that broadly affects sections/extremities/whole of the forest.
When it comes time to pot, just wedge the buried board up and slide the composition into/onto whatever you want.
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