Edmonton’s habit of planting street trees in small pits with no room to grow turns out to be a big waste of time and money. Without space to stretch their roots, most of Edmonton’s saplings planted along Jasper Avenue, Whyte Avenue and 124 Street sprout into teenagers but grow no further. They die, get torn out and a new sapling goes in to face exactly the same fate. “Put in a friggin’ artificial tree if you put it in knowing it’s got a limited life in front of it,” said Coun. Scott McKeen, after city officials outlined a possible new approach Wednesday. Officials estimate it would take an average $10,000 a tree, or a total of $72 million, to eventually replace all 8,000 street trees as they die.