Choosing Trees for Small Landscape Designs

Siberian SpruceNearly all garden designs will have some types of trees or tall shrubberies mixed in, simply because using varying heights is important when putting together a well rounded garden or landscape design. Unfortunately, when you are working with a small amount of space, you are a little more limited when it comes to space for these larger plants, meaning that extra creativity is needed in order for you to achieve your objectives. Trees and shrubs can grow to form a variety of different types of mixed hedging, creating unique landscape designs, wind breaks and even privacy screens. Just because your garden space is small, you should not leave out the trees, shrubs and hedges.

When it comes to designing gardens intended for smaller spaces, the choices available for trees will diminish as your amount of available space is reduced. While a small space may be capable of supporting a larger tree species, everything may seem distorted or out of place if you do not plan everything perfectly. One of the most important things that you need to remember is that small trees that you purchase from a local nursery may look great now, but eventually, they are going to grow into their spaces, becoming far too large and cumbersome and possibly even causing damage in the process. There are a variety of different ways that a too-large tree can cause damage to your living space, including that overbearing roots can damage foundations, basements, walls, roofs, sidewalks and even plumbing and electrical.

If you have a small yard or a small garden area that you want to grow trees and shrubs in, then you really need to pay particular attention to your surroundings. You need to take careful note of overhead wires, overhead cables, overhanging roofs and any other possible thing that a tree could possibly disturb when growing taller with time. You also want to make sure that you know about the growth patterns of a tree before you buy it so that there are no surprises in five to ten years when the tree is overgrowing in comparison to every other element within the garden or landscaping space.

When planting trees in small garden spaces, consider the following choices:

  • The Serbian spruce is a tree that grows narrow and upright, not taking up too much horizontal space.
  • The Coral bark dogwood and the Coral bark maple are two tees that have truly marvellous and decorative types of bark.
  • The Flowering crab apple, the Japanese Maple and the Dwarf Korean Lilac tree are also all excellent choices. The Dwarf Korean Lilac tree specifically offers beautiful blooms with gorgeous fragrances.

All of these trees would be good choices for a small garden space because they are not overgrowing trees, their roots will not harm your ground and they will not take up too much space in your garden.