For sometime now I’ve heard that people do indeed go out and scrub the bark of their trees. I’m not one for housework at the best of times (a necessary evil) but to extend this into the garden seems madness. There is only one way to find out whether this extra cleaning is worth it. The Betula pictured below is near a north facing wall in a courtyard area where I have been working today. This northerly aspect means the bark does tend to have algae build up, giving it a greenish look….. cue the bucket of water and soft brush.
You can see for yourself there is a difference and I have to say that my photography skills do not seem to have done it justice. I only cleaned about 7ft of the trunks and it took me around 15 minutes. So in the future if ornamental bark on birches or other trees is looking a little grubby I will take a few minutes out of my day, pop on my marigolds and get scrubbing!
