Grow Green, Live Grand: Your Ultimate Guide to Backyard Tree Selection.
Embracing Nature's Grandeur: Why Trees Transform Your Home and Beyond
Trees offer a wealth of advantages, gracing our surroundings with their inherent beauty and myriad benefits. They are vital contributors to the ecological well-being of our communities, prompting many of us to plant them as a gesture towards planetary health. The act of tree planting can also serve as a meaningful tribute, whether celebrating a new life or honoring a lost loved one. However, for many, the most compelling reason to plant trees is simply the joy and aesthetic pleasure they bring to our personal spaces.
Navigating the Verdant Choices: Finding the Perfect Tree for Your Yard
When embarking on the journey of tree planting, you'll discover a vast array of species available through local nurseries and their catalogues. The real challenge lies in making an informed decision, selecting a species that thrives in your specific geographic region and complements your outdoor space. This guide provides a systematic five-step approach to assist you in choosing the most suitable trees for your home environment.
Geographic Harmony: Pinpointing Ideal Tree Species for Your Locale
Every tree species exhibits optimal growth within particular regions, influenced by factors such as elevation, winter hardiness, average seasonal temperatures, and water availability. Many professional landscape organizations across states maintain lists of the best trees tailored to specific regions, considering their growth requirements and common availability. Your local agricultural extension services can also be a valuable resource for county-specific recommendations. Alternatively, a quick online search for "recommended trees [your state]" will provide a starting point, with these resources helping to narrow down your initial options.
Strategic Sizing: Rethinking Large Trees for Immediate Landscape Impact
While majestic shade trees like oaks, hickories, and many maple varieties mature into splendid additions to any garden, their extensive growth period presents a consideration. If you choose a species destined to exceed 40 feet in maturity, you might relocate before the tree significantly enhances your landscape's visual appeal. Even with a larger, more established specimen, achieving its full grandeur could take 30 to 50 years.
For most home gardens, opting for smaller trees (maturing under 30 feet) or medium-sized trees (reaching 30 to 40 feet) offers a more immediate and manageable impact. This adjustment significantly refines your selection pool.
Defining Your Vision: Prioritizing Desired Tree Attributes for a Shorter List
Consider the specific traits you value most in a tree: vibrant blossoms, striking autumnal colors, evergreen foliage, distinctive forms, intriguing bark textures, or the ability to attract local wildlife. When searching for a new tree, few of us settle for just any plant. We seek a specimen that will elevate our outdoor environment and align with our personal preferences. By focusing on these specific characteristics, you can significantly reduce the number of potential candidates on your list.
Flowering ornamental trees are particularly popular, with most blooming in spring. However, several species offer summer or early autumn blooms, adding color when other trees are less active. Blossoms come in diverse hues, including white, pink, red, yellow, purple, and various combinations. Certain flowering varieties, such as crab apples and dogwoods, are also known to attract birds.
Evergreens can create effective natural barriers, providing privacy between your yard and public spaces or neighboring properties. Some trees are prized for their unique shapes, exemplified by the twisting branches of the corkscrew willow or the graceful weeping forms of certain species. Others boast captivating bark, like the luminous white of a birch or the peeling texture of a river birch.
After eliminating species based on their characteristics, your list will be considerably shorter, containing only those trees that truly pique your interest.
Real-World Availability: Confirming Your Tree Choices with Local Suppliers
The next crucial step is to take your refined list to local garden centers or reputable landscaping companies to ascertain which of your preferred trees are actually in stock.
It can be disheartening to discover an ideal tree—small, fast-growing, with beautiful fall colors, and adaptable to various conditions (like the Trident maple)—only to find that local nurseries don't carry it. Obtaining such varieties can be challenging, especially if they are newly developed, as it often takes a decade for recently bred species to become widely available. Sometimes, a local landscaper may have access to varieties not yet distributed through retail channels. While you can typically purchase almost any tree online or from a catalog, these often arrive as young saplings, 3 to 4 feet tall, requiring a longer wait to become a prominent feature in your landscape.
Growth Dynamics and Size: Making the Final Selection Between Desired Species
If you still have multiple species on your list, the deciding factors often come down to growth rate and mature size. Information typically found on a tree's label at a garden center specifies its light requirements (sun or shade) and its anticipated height and spread, but rarely its growth speed. Fast-growing trees typically expand by 1.5 feet or more annually. Medium growers add about 1 foot per year, while slow-growing trees increase by less than 1 foot annually.
Therefore, if you purchase a 10-foot maple expected to reach 70 feet that is also a slow grower, it could take 60 years for it to reach full maturity—a significant wait. When faced with two equally appealing trees, prioritizing the one with a faster growth rate is often the more practical choice. Resources, such as those mentioned previously, can assist in finding information on growth rates.
Finally, I recommend investing in the largest specimen you can reasonably afford, even if the initial cost seems substantial. Many trees available at garden and home centers range from 8 to 10 feet tall, typically priced between $50 and $150. Specialized garden centers often offer trees exceeding 20 feet in height, priced from $200 to $600, depending on the species. A tree of this size usually requires a root ball too large for an average homeowner to manage independently, necessitating professional delivery and planting, which can cost an additional $200 to $400. While this might appear to be a significant expenditure for a single tree, it's a wise investment. Mature, well-maintained shade trees can boost your home's value by 7 to 19 percent. A smaller $150 tree won't offer a comparable increase for at least a decade. In contrast, a 20 to 30-foot tree instantly enhances your landscape's aesthetic appeal and can recoup its cost through increased property value within three to five years.
Fostering Ecological Resilience: The Imperative of Diverse Tree Planting
A significant ecological concern in urban environments is the lack of diversity within tree populations. In the 1970s, elms were the favored street and landscape tree in the United States, leading to widespread planting. However, the subsequent emergence of Dutch elm disease decimated virtually all of these beautiful, towering elms. In response, ash trees, similar in stature and appearance to elms, were planted in large numbers. Then, in 2002, the emerald ash borer appeared, a pest responsible for the demise of tens of millions of ash trees in Michigan alone.
When you introduce a tree to your ecosystem, strive to select a species that isn't among the top five most prevalent in your locality. Increasing the diversity within a local ecosystem makes it significantly less susceptible to catastrophic tree losses caused by insect infestations or diseases.
Our planet desperately requires more trees to compensate for the billions lost due to development. Planting a tree annually will not only enhance the beauty of your yard and increase your home's value but also contribute to making Earth a more vibrant and sustainable place.