There are things that are pretty ugly, but very practical

by time news

BerlinSome inventions are pretty ugly, but practical. Velcro shoes, the Dixi toilet, hardware stores. And anyone who has battered their back on a beautiful hand-carved wooden chair with a straight backrest in Asia will immediately fall in love with a monobloc. These are plastic chairs that are cast in one piece. Pretty ugly, but wonderfully comfortable.

The green sacks that have become fashionable this summer are also quite ugly. They are incredibly practical, like saving urban trees after three drought summers in a row. The plastic bags are placed around the tree trunk and closed with a zipper so that they look like a thick goiter at the foot of the tree. The sack is filled with a couple of buckets of water, which slowly seeps through tiny holes in the ground, thus supplying the tree.

In the north of Friedrichshain, 100 of these bags were certainly attached. Great idea. Because a newly planted city tree can cost up to 1000 euros. But especially when it is dry, they have to be watered for up to 15 years until their roots reach deep enough into the ground. The water bags help to avoid having to constantly water. But almost all of them have been empty for weeks. Only one is filled to the brim. A neighbor had taken pity on it.

It’s crazy that a lot of money is being spent to plant new trees. But then there is obviously not enough money to send people over to water. So new money is being spent on the sacks. A stable copy costs 20 euros. But then the most important thing is forgotten: the water. A liter of it costs 0.5 cents in Berlin.

And so many city trees in the north of Friedrichshain have these ugly, but really very practical abdominal frills. Nevertheless, they have been hanging their leaves for a long time. The green is often yellow for a long time. Because they are deprived of the life-saving liquid. All the many water bags are currently just empty air bags.

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