This October we will be considering the design potential of trees.

The time to plant trees is now until February. Planting trees can create a sustainable, dynamic and interesting environment for every season within your home garden. Just the ability to decorate their bowers be it for Halloween, Bonfire night, Christmas or the Festival of Lights can offer an evocative inspiring space

Examples of creating designed spaces with trees would include: growing an arbour from Sorbus aria, having evergreens like Taxus, Abies or Juniper that can be dressed for Christmas, Using deciduous multi-stem trees as a backdrop for an autumnal scene with a central fire pit so you can all sit around and toast s’mores. 

Trees do so much for us, both aesthetically and for the planet they have the benefit of interesting bark, leaf colour, autumn colour, blooms and fruits so there is much to recommend them. 

So some in focus facts for Designing with trees in your garden:

1.Trees offer great structure and screening in your garden.

Trees lift your eye from the ground or the fence to the blue skies. Brought into the centre garden area (rather than the boundary line) the impact can better screen views you want to block from your house. By doing this they can also mark the depth of you garden creating views through. They support the flow of a garden design as markers to draw the eye.

2. They create a microclimate for surrounding planting. Trees in particular can help with clay soils which will dry out in the summer months and be waterlogged in winter. Trees will offer shade and leaf litter to the surrounding area allowing other perennials and shrubs to establish under some shelter on an exposed site.

3. They take up excess ground water. Particularly Salix or Betula but there are others too all trees will take up more water from the surrounding ground than herbaceous perennials. Should you have a waterlogged site, stay away from the cherry family and yew (Taxus bacata) as they really do not like sitting wet.

4. They pump out oxygen and purify the air. The process of gas exchange in trees is a major contributor to our oxygen in the atmosphere more long term planting of trees, more carbon store, more micro pollutants taken up and more oxygen released. I have no doubt trees are the superhero of our future on this planet!

5. They create habits for insects, food for birds. They benefit from the berries, the insects that hibernate in the bark and leaf litter. 

Trees are shade, homes and food store for nature they are height and interest who wouldn’t want to design trees into their garden.