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09 March 2005
Sky's the limit with trees
By Charlie Wilkins
ONE ALWAYS regrets not having planted more of a thing one likes. This may not be tidy English, but it is good gardening advice! When it comes to choosing and planting garden trees, few want to listen, fewer still are prepared to allow themselves to be led. What a shame. The uplift of a tree can work wonders on a garden but the potential is often missed because the full picture is hard to imagine. In my books, the sky is another planting place, one to be filled and framed in the same fashion as linear, ground-level dimensions. Not enough gardeners are prepared to look upwards.
There’s something deeply exciting about planting a tree but choosing a specimen for your garden can be agonising. Choosing a good garden tree is difficult for it is hard to imagine what your choice will look like in five, ten or even twenty years time. Will it dominate the garden leaving you to find plants which don’t mind the shade or will it just provide that point of focus and uplift which your garden needs?. But choose you must and now is as good a time as any. The one off-putting aspect of any tree planting is the fear of structural damage to buildings and problems associated with shade. As for structural damage, unless you choose a forest giant (willows, poplars, oaks) and garden on heavy clay which would have the tendency to shrink under the drying influence of tree roots, subsidence will not be a problem. In my own small garden there are at least six trees growing within 12 feet of our living and dining rooms to the rear, and one within six feet of our main bedroom to the front!
These modest growers with their canopy of light, twiggy branches supply a dappled shade for a sparkling cast of plants growing beneath their feet. I value this shade.
Every tree I own breaks the commonsense rule of thumb that a garden tree should always be placed at a distance equivalent to its ultimate height. My soil is light and sandy and I don’t expect nasty repercussions. However if you want to play ultra safe then choose a top rate, soft yellow deciduous tree called Gleditsia ‘Sunburst’ (or Honey Locust as it is commonly known). I can say at this juncture that it is a modest grower, spreads charmingly, and enthrals with its bright yellow leaves from late spring. These become limey yellow in summer. Great for spots in which it can be illuminated from behind as in westerly aspects where the setting sun will shine through its branch tracery. Avoid windy spots as it can be on the brittle side.
Typical height after 10 years; 15 to 18 feet. At least have a look at it this spring at garden centres everywhere.
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