How did downtown SLO get its trees?
Between curb extensions, parklets and new road lane striping, the streets of downtown San Luis Obispo has been undergoing some changes lately.
But there have been bigger ones in the city’s past.
Look at photos from the downtown area prior to 1963 and there is something missing: Trees.
The trees make downtown San Luis Obispo more welcoming, shady and cool. As designer and downtown historian Pierre Rademaker observes, they also mask the hodgepodge architectural styles displayed by of the various buildings.
The trees have been here almost six decades, earning the city recognition from the Arbor Foundation.
Here’s the story of how the trees got there, written by staff writer Bill Glines on Nov. 30, 1963.
Mr. Flory winds up on Chorro St.
Perhaps as poet Joyce Kilmer once put it, “Only God can make a tree.”
And poems (and newspaper articles, it might be added parenthetically) are made by “fools like me” to again quote the World War I poet.
But William Edward Flory — San Luis Obispo’s sturdy, stocky director of parks and recreation — might be described as a little foolish about trees in a nice sort of way.
He doesn’t ask questions about who makes them.
It’s his business to plant ‘em. And make them grow. Particularly alongside busy city streets.
Right now Flory is busy winding up an extensive tree planting program along downtown Chorro Street.
Next in line will be Higuera Street.
Portions of the sidewalks are being torn out to make room for the trees.
It’s part of a city beautification kick that got underway about the time plans were being seriously bruited around for Mission Plaza.
Flory, who has charge of the city parks, got caught in the whirlwind. And from all appearances it will go on until the bark comes off the dogwood and rabbits nibble down the carrotwood.
The carrotwoods have been planted along Chorro.
Flory notes that although carrotwood is still fairly scarce in California, and particularly in San Luis Obispo, the federal government some 40 years ago suggested that carrotwood — a slender-trunked tree that breaks into a sunburst of limbs and leaves toward the top — might be good for planting in the Bear State.
Flory said that part of the problem raised by sidewalk planting is that at least two native species of trees—the sycamore and the oak—simply grow too large and have big rootings that would have a tendency to destroy sidewalks.
This has meant that exotic type trees will have to be used.
As for planting them, Flory says, he is following much the same directions he would use if he were putting them into the soil in his own yard.
Specimens being used are about 12 feet high. They are 6 to 8 years of age. It was thought that smaller trees might have an excessively difficult time getting started in the downtown area.
Also, Flory said, he was afraid that if smaller trees were used the public wouldn’t notice them.
“It was important that the trees be big enough to get public attention,” Flory said. “And once the public could see what we were doing it seemed to get back of the idea of sidewalk plantings.
Five-foot-deep holes are dug to hold the trees. Once the hole is scooped out, then a couple of feet of sand mixed with bone and blood meals and manure, and a healthy dose of Vitamin B-1, which takes care of the shock suffered by a tree in transplanting, are dumped in.
The tree and its rootings go in next, Then the regular soil.
“It’s awfully important to get the chemicals and sand in there around the rootings,” Flory said.
“You might as well throw in a sack of cement as to put the tree in and cover the roots and lower trunk with the native dirt.”
“Some people call the soil adobe. Some hardpan. Some clay. By whatever name, it’s like cement once the first rain hits it. This hardening makes it practically impossible for a young root system to get started. This is true whether the planting is in your backyard or along a sidewalk”
Special sidewalk covers have been constructed to fit around the tree trunks. These heavy covers can be lifted off for fertilizing during the year.
Flory said that watering for the trees is handled on the same basis that homeowners water their yards.
During the rainy season watering isn’t necessary. And during the colder, dryer winter months he plans to water once a week.
This story was originally published October 9, 2021 at 5:05 AM.
