Choosing trees

Choosing Trees to grow is a vital factor as it only thrives when they’re planted in the right place. “Tree Removal Hayward CA” explains this process of which tree to select & how to plant it.

The first question we need to ask is; why plant trees at all? One could say, philosophically, that it is because we inhabit lands where trees are central to the life of all organisms, plant and animal. Even 21st– century humans are affected in basic environmental ways. Planting 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.

Choosing trees
Choosing trees

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 mode0 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 is 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 tress, on the whole, are out.

As also, for the most part, are those trees graphically described as “weeds- 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 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.

Choosing trees
Choosing trees

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 tree 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 atavistically fighting it out in their primeval forests, it should be noted, once mature, many forest trees are entirely suitable for town planting: think of the London plane tress 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.

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