Choosing trees
This snippet has been taken from “Best Trees for Your Garden” written by “Allen Paterson”. Choosing trees is a big investment in the future of your landscape so its very important to make the choice wisely. “Tree Removal Berkeley CA“, helps you to choose the best & correct trees to plant. Our heartfelt gratitude to the author for helping us to choose wisely.
Choosing Trees
The first question we need to ask is: why plant trees at all? One could say, philosophically, that it is because we inhabit and where trees are central to the life of all organisms, plant and animal. Even 21st – century humans are affected in basic environmental ways. Planting or replanting even on the most cursorily utilitarian terms goes some way to acknowledge the fact.
Trees are vital to the land and its well-being. Where, in the search for ever more profitable farming practices, woodlands, woodlots, hedges and the trees that grow in them have been inexorably torn out, it is now being recognized that this is good neither for farming nor for the countryside. In Britain, the financial grants that only recently were available to increase field sizes are now offered for hedge and tree replacement. The pro and con arguments whirl around, like Florida in the hurricane season, the conflicting concerns of economics, environment and nature conservation.
However, most of us, when we wonder whether or not we should plant a tree, are thinking more about what the tree will do for us personally. Altruism is apt to be a subsequent justification. For while annuals offer quick color, perennials quick height, only woody things have winter presence, and only trees give scale. The only natural organisms that compete with man’s works and put them into context, trees can complement our buildings and even our way of life. So it is wise to make considered decisions.
Owners of large properties(even those whose agricultural lands beyond have succumbed to the modern mode) plant to frame or enhance views from the house, to hide encroaching eyesores, to dampen noise from the new bypass, to plan for a succession to those aging trees planted to deal with the similar threats current a couple of centuries ago. Overall are the desirable virtues of providing enclosure, wind protection, shade and, in all its manifestations, beauty in the eye of the resident beholder.
These same considerations apply regardless of the size of our gardens, even to the tiny city courtyard that can take only one tree. Indeed, in many ways, the smaller the space available, the more crucial the choice. Shade in summer is highly desirable; shade in winter, when we cherish every gleam from an often reluctant sun, is unacceptable. So, when it comes to the small town garden, evergreen trees, on the whole, are out.
As also, for the most part, are those trees graphically described as “weed-trees.” These may well be fine plants in other situations, even desirable, but city conditions often imply higher ambient temperatures and lack of competition, which can turn them into thugs. Sycamore in London, tree of heaven in New York City, Manitoba maple in Toronto, every place has its pariah. They grow too fast for small gardens, get too big too soon and cast seed around with gay abandon. Their offspring can be seen sprouting happily from cornices, eaves-troughs and downspouts, to the detriment of all.
Such strictures must not be exaggerated, however. The elegance of 18th– century terraces as far apart as Edinburgh’s New Town and Washington D.C.’s Georgetown is vastly enhanced by the trees in the streets and communal garden squares in front and those in the private spaces behind. Modern building regulations, heavily influenced by an increasingly litigious society, worry about trees roots undermining foundations and generally behaving badly; but these historic houses stay up and remain, embowered in branches, supremely desirable for city- center living. And though in a small space it is certainly as well to avoid deciduous species which reach for the sky as if they are atavistic-ally fighting it out in their primeval forests, it should be noted that, once mature, many forest trees are entirely suitable for town planting: think of the London plane trees of Belgravia, in perfect scale with the great houses around. By maturity, the canopy is high, so low winter sun gleams on the marbled trunks, and judicious surgery may have thinned the branches. Architecture of man and of nature are wonderfully attuned.
While it is seldom that individuals today have the opportunity to plan and plant on such a scale, the ideal remains valid. Small spaces do not necessarily demand
Above, Left To Right: The diversity of choice in garden trees. We might plant for fall color (Acer rub-rum), delicate spring blossom with fruit to follow (Amelanchier Canadensis), architectural effect(Araucanian araucana) or huge scented flowers in May and June (Magnolia X Soulangeana “Lennei”). All have presence throughout the year.
Continue reading our article on Factors affecting Garden Colors