Trees should get the award for Most Valuable Player on the landscaping team.
Their many varieties allow them to be useful in a wide range of applications, under many different considerations of location, size, sunlight, moisture, allowable space, appearance, and level of maintenance needed.
For considerations of larger size and plenty of shade, two members of the maple family, the sugar maple and the red maple, work especially well. These trees also provide brilliant leaf color in the fall to add beauty to your landscape. The Japanese maples are smaller in size and add a graceful focal point to your garden.
In keeping with the idea of smaller trees that provide a striking touch, the dogwoods, weeping cherries, crab apples, and a variety of other flowering ornamentals serve very well in terms of adding color from their blossoms to providing softness, shade, and temperature moderation from their leafy foliage.
Their placement within the overall scheme adds to the balance, geometric flow, harmony, and contrast within the garden.
Still not satisfied with all that trees can provide for you?
Let’s have a little snack while we pause and think about this. How about a nice juicy apple, which came from, of course, an apple tree! If you have some extra space, why not consider planting fruit trees?
With the many different varieties available now, particularly those available in dwarf and semi-dwarf tree sizes, only a small area is needed to grow trees which produce edible fruit.
Some varieties of citrus trees are even available in small enough sizes to be grown on the patio as container plants.
In the case of fruit trees, your plants are actually performing triple duties: providing living foliage, producing attractive blossoms, and giving you edible fruit!
So when you sit down to formulate your gardening plan, don’t forget to add the MVP’s to your landscaping team, those multi-talented trees!
