Sad about my tree

[wafflesmgee]

I asked my dad to water my garden for me whilst I was on holiday. I have a very small garden with lots of water butts next to two raised beds and lots of pots. It takes 15 mins to water it thoroughly.

He and my mum ask the same of me when they are away, which is frequently as they are retired. It takes me an hour to water their garden properly, which I do three times per holiday for them.

I came home yesterday and my tree is dying. We have nicknamed it my fourth child, I sit and watch it with a cup of tea after a stressful day at work and got so much joy and peace from it. Now it’s dying and I’m genuinely grieving.
Part of me thinks I’m being silly, people have lost houses in the heatwave after all. Part of me is bloody raging…it’s one tree and I have water butts next to it, how hard can it be?!
I spoke to him yesterday and he was adamant he’d watered it…he thinks it will recover. Now I feel like every time I will look at it next year I’ll be angry and feel robbed of the peace of mind I need to survive my stressful job.

yabu-it’s a tree, get over it
yanbu- it’s ok to be sad and angry

I’ve been watering my new plants assiduously this year. All the washing up water, emptied the water butts, watering cans etc. Despite all this, last week’s heatwave was the final straw for a few of my shrubs and saplings. I’m just hoping that the rain we’ve now had will help and they’ll all recover. It’s just been a brutal year. Hopefully September, when most trees have another growth spurt, will be better for them all.

The tree is not dying, but why is it in a box? That is part of the problem.

Depends if the planter has a solid base (with drainage), is on some sort of hard standing or is on soil. The latter would be better, depending on how deep birch trees roots go.

@wafflesmgee I'm glad it's recovering. I've had trees in pots which I thought had died because I forgot to water them but a good soaking everyday for a week, they were growing new shoots and are still going now. Tree will take the nutrients from the leaves, like it does in the autumn, and then the smaller branches to keep the main part living so it does take a lot of neglect to kill one off

loads of trees look terrible at the moment, they are saving their own lives by dropping leaves and fruit in order to conserve water in the roots and trunk. Keep watering it well, a good drench every so often rather than a dribble a day. Keep going well into winter, until the proper rains come back. Hopefully next year it will delight you again!