Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'

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Avenue of Dead Cars up in The Trees
A Row of Cars up in The Trees
  (+16, -2)(+16, -2)
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It's a long term project, that starts by cutting a substantial hole in the floors and roofs of a set of cars. These cars are then placed on top of a line of oak (or similar) tree saplings which will grow through their bodies, emerging out of the gaping roofs.

Eventually the cars will be "captured" by the growing trees and raised above the ground, their now flimsy, rusting carcasses penetrated randomly through the windows by the trees' sprouting limbs.

Periodically, fragments of the cars will break off and fall to the ground like decayed leaves. With enough weathering and time the cars will be reduced to mere skeletons, their chassis draped like necklaces at odd angles, amidst the mature greenery of the Avenue of Dead Cars up in The Trees.


xenzag, Sep 26 2006

A car in a tree. http://www.flickr.c...iagrover/125319458/
No idea how it got there. Must make for spectacular nests. [jutta, Sep 26 2006]

or another one that just didn't make it http://www.cybersal...h/yourturn/yt31.htm
[xandram, Sep 26 2006]

Another car in a tree. http://www.flickr.c...frywith1e/28352157/
"87". What a lovely tree! [jutta, Sep 26 2006]

(?) Tree growing through a car in a parking lot. http://people.wwc.e.../TreeThroughCar.jpg
The car is much too new and the tree much too mature for the tree to have grown through the car. [BJS, Sep 26 2006]

Yet another car in a tree. http://www.flickr.c...tsphotos/127330887/
Sure looks like it might have gotten off the ground via the tree growing. [jutta, Sep 26 2006]

Carbrella Tree CarBrellaTree
For a more mobile version. [jurist, Sep 26 2006]

A rather nice car in a tree http://www.toyotaow...isc/car_in_tree.jpg
[DrCurry, Sep 26 2006]

Cars are so environmentaly unfriendly. http://www.arborsmi...om/treeatsbike.html
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 26 2006]

The trees begin to choose for themselves. http://www.parkingb...om/photos/yikes.jpg
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Oct 01 2006]

[link]






       I like it, but don't think it'd work as written, given the way a tree grows - telescoping upwards at the top rather than lifting from the bottom. The cars would not become suspended in the crowns; instead, the trees would just appear to grow out of the cars' roofs.

jutta, Sep 26 2006
  

       The car would be lifted eventually.

BJS, Sep 26 2006
  

       With careful planning and planting I believe the cars will be taken up, especially by the supporting action of horizantal branches.   

       As a child I remember seeing an old car taken above the ground by the accidental growth of a tree, but maybe I was just dreaming.

xenzag, Sep 26 2006
  

       Maybe just have the car suspended on stilts while the tree grows up under and around it?   

       Clearly, this calls for a long-term experiment!

jutta, Sep 26 2006
  

       //but maybe I was just dreaming//   

       Well [xenzag] just keep on dreaming because you are doing a great job of it. +

xandram, Sep 26 2006
  

       That one's a gem Jutta - well found.

xenzag, Sep 26 2006
  

       Umm, trees bottoms don't grow up. They stay in the same place, and things grow out of the top of the tree. Horizontal branches might lift the car a little... about the diameter of the branch in question, at most though.   

       Trees that grow as wide as an iron band wrapped around them will also soon die, as the band prevents the tree from sending it's nutrients down to the roots, which then die and stop sending water up. I suppose it's possible that the tree will split the car, rather than getting choked by it though.   

       You might instead try planting a patch of bamboo beneath the car.

ye_river_xiv, Sep 26 2006
  

       Wasn't this something in Big Fish? Or was that just the one car and an avenue full of people who didn't wear shoes?

DrCurry, Sep 26 2006
  

       That bicycle is another gem 2 fries. I love it.   

       plish (et all), I understand what you are saying. Trees do grow in particular ways, but I believe that they can be induced, through deliberate action, to take up the cars, and this is the essence of the halfbakery for me.

xenzag, Sep 27 2006
  

       Delete an anno?   

       I've never done that yet, as far as I can remember. Think that mfd bothers me ? Flag it up and get on with it. I'm told the correct format is: [marked-for- deletion] - if you want it to be noticed.   

       I'm already seeding your petrol with lilandias - now we'll see who's car ends up in the trees ;-)

xenzag, Sep 27 2006
  

       Sorry, but the tree will never lift the car. Trees don't grow that way.   

       I rather like the idea of a long row of trees, each with a tree balanced in the top of it.

UnaBubba, Sep 27 2006
  

       Every day a farmer goes into his field and he picks up one of his new born calves and sets it down again. He does this without fail, as the seasons pass, until one day he is able to lift a whole cow. Flann O'Brien.

xenzag, Sep 28 2006
  

       /shirley the sapling/ I don't know about Shirley, but most saplings get longer at the tip and just wider at the base. Think about all the "No Traspessin" signs that you see nailed to trees as you drive through the countryside, do they get higher in the tree as they get older? Or what about hammocks, do the attachment rings move up the tree?

Galbinus_Caeli, Sep 28 2006
  

       //do the attachment rings move up the tree?//   

       of course they rise !   

       I'm sorry, but it's an itch I must scratch.... it's the very reason why cows get bigger - to be able to rub their arses against the rising hammock rings on the trees. Leaving this alone now, but it was fun, was it not?

xenzag, Sep 28 2006
  

       <Police Academy cats/cars mash-up>   

       "Excuse me officer, my Mini is stuck up that tree. Could you help me get it down?"   

       "Certainly Ma'am." BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

ConsulFlaminicus, Oct 02 2006
  
      
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