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] Another car in a tree. http://www.flickr.c...frywith1e/28352157/"87". What a lovely tree! [jutta, 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] Carhenge http://www.carhenge.com/Dead car sculpture [wagster, Oct 02 2009] Dead Bicycle in a tree http://ezwelty.phot...ge/I00002PIi..iAhy8 [xenzag, Apr 10 2013] 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 27 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 27 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 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 <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 See new link - sent to me by one of my pals today. Just had to be be posted.-- xenzag, Jul 04 2009 //most saplings get longer at the tip and just wider at the base//
Don't cut a hole in the roof. Picture the tip of the sapling lower than the roof of the car, pushing up on it. The tree will raise the car as it grows, will it not? This would continue until the roof rusts and the tree-tip pokes through, after which the height of the car remains constant, while the tree continues to get taller. (I assume horizontal branches will by then have grown beneath the car to prevent it sliding all the way back down to the ground.)-- mouseposture, Oct 02 2009 There are other ways to achieve this:
Some years ago, during a military excercise in Thetford Forest, a helicopter was flying low over trees with a Landrover suspended below.
Almost inevitably, the Landrover became entangled in a tree and had to be released from the helicopter.
The Landrover remained in the tree, a short distance from the road, for some weeks and became something of a local celebrity.-- Twizz, Oct 02 2009 \\Landrover became a local celebrity\\ And they say the Yanks are car-mad!-- mouseposture, Nov 17 2010 A tree will lift a car iff the actual growing tip is below the car, meaning the car is completely on top of it. (as [mouseposture] suggests)Unfortunately, given that this will limit growth, the tree will either die, or it will start growing vertically from branches that spread outside the footprint of the car.-- MechE, Nov 17 2010 Cabbage palms grow to mature girth before growing skyward.-- cudgel, Nov 17 2010 Just came across pic in last link..... now I'm thinking of Avenue of Dead Bicycles In The Trees of course.-- xenzag, Apr 10 2013 That was nice... Some kind person added a nasty fish bone for no reason. ie they didn't have the courtesy to say why...... ha! order subsequently restored to universe - thanks :-)-- xenzag, Apr 11 2013 I misread the title, thought it said "Avenue of dead CATS in trees."
Which suggests that the municipality has taken austerity to the extreme and laid off all firemen.
Probably more cost-effective and faster to lower junk cars into trees from helicopters. Or, better yet, zeppelins.-- whlanteigne, Apr 11 2013 Artsy. I like it. [+]
Certain vehicle/tree pairings could convey their own messages: Nissan/deciduous -- All LEAFed out. Tesla/pine -- Forever green. Volvo/oak -- Strong as an oak. Yugo/redwood -- Achieving its highest use ever.-- whatrock, May 17 2016 if we can get this darned global warming up to speed, and flood the occasional island or coastal town, cars up in trees (where they belong!!) might become so common as to be unremarkable.-- r_kreher, May 22 2016 random, halfbakery