Volume 135
Part 11
Compared to other gardening activities, selecting and planting a tree seems simple. Surely, you need none of the mind games involved in juggling flowering periods and sizes of herbaceous plants to achieve the perfect seasonal colour combination, nor all that strategic planning of next year’s vegetable crop rotation. Doesn’t a tree just need a hole, water and perhaps a stake? Well, wrong – but in some ways right. I find much of the effort in tree planting is not the physical activity itself, but preparation – deciding on the desired effect, researching those best suited to your soil and climate, and appreciating their mature sizes and growth rates. No good wanting immediate effect if growth is as slow as rock formation, but fine if you are willing to wait. In a small garden it can be better to plant a faster-growing large shrub, then prune and lift the canopy, than plant a tree that will ultimately be too large. Trees in urban gardens have had a bad press. But that should not deter us from planting the best species and cultivars appropriate to our gardens. In this issue The Garden celebrates trees from selection to planting and establishment.
Ian Hodgson, Editor
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