Trees give shade. Trees give food. Trees also provide an entirely new ecosystem for your garden, which allows you to grow plants you normally wouldn’t. Best of all, trees turn your garden into a private oasis of calm. Be sure to add trees to your garden design.
Decide Why You Want Trees
You can choose the right trees for the garden only once you know what purpose your trees will serve. Do you want shade? Do you want privacy? If you want food-growing trees, you’ll need to select the right trees.
Shady Trees
Shade provides abundant benefits to any garden. Not only does it keep you cool during hot afternoons, but certain plants and shrubs rely on the shade to thrive. Plants such as hosta, bleeding hearts, and ferns need shade to grow. You’ll need tall trees with large canopies for this job. Use trees such as maples, beech, and oaks to bring shade to your garden.
Ornamental and Privacy Trees
Some trees are more beautiful than practical. They provide vibrant colors to your garden, such as crab apple trees in the spring or maples in the fall. Some ornamental trees have eye-catching shapes, like hardy palms and topiaries.
If you’re looking to create a barrier between your garden and the outside world, then you want trees that grow tightly together. Cypress trees are great because they make a vibrant green wall. Yews and Thuja Green Giants are shorter and work well running alongside a fence or short wall.
Location Is Everything
Adding trees to your garden design involves finding the right location for them. You need to know about their root growth patterns, what kind of sunlight each tree needs, and how the shade will affect the rest of your garden.
The best thing you can do is to think of the tree when it matures. At that point, it will be at its tallest and have its largest root system. Make sure it gets enough sun and that it won’t damage any structures on your property.
Remove Diseased Trees
Before you plant any new trees in your garden, you want to remove any diseased trees that may be there. Insect infestations or rot can spread to your new trees, and it’s not enough to spray some insecticide on the problematic area. Hire experts to remove them.
Mulch Your New Trees
The first thing you need to do after you’ve planted your new trees is to create a ring of mulch around them. Mulch protects the roots as they grow into their new home and helps the tree grow. Create a flat ring of mulch about 3 to 6 feet in diameter around the tree trunk. Keep this in mind when planning your garden layout.
No matter what you decide to do with your garden, adding trees is bound to make it better. Whether you want shade or some eye candy, trees bring life to your oasis. Choose your trees, plan where to put them, and enjoy your garden for years to come.