Why every garden needs trees

If you plant only one thing this year, make it a tree.

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Every garden needs trees. A garden without trees is like a body without bones; incomplete, weak, empty and unstructured.

There are so many benefits to having a garden filled with trees and yet a lot of people hesitate to plant them. Maybe it feels like a big commitment - trees can seem so permanent and, I admit, some can grow very tall. But they are so worth it!

Today, I intend to persuade you to fill your entire garden with trees. If, by the end of this newsletter I have you convinced, make sure to tune back in on Thursday when I’ll be sending through a list and brief description of every tree I am currently growing in our garden. These trees all grow easily in Perth’s climate (a dry, Mediterranean climate with predominately sandy soils) and they will bring you (and the creatures in your garden) immeasurable joy!

WA is currently experiencing the driest summer on record - it’s April and it is still SO warm. If that scares you half as much as it scares me, it’s time to pick some trees to add to your garden over winter. Trees will help cool your garden through our increasingly hot, dry summers, helping grow an urban canopy that we desperately need.

A quick note first: if you are in WA and you care even a little bit about trees, it’s really important to be on the lookout for the. Polyphagous Shothole Borer - a recently (accidentally) introduced species from Southeast Asia, which is wreaking havoc on our gorgeous old trees, and spreading through Perth. Knowing how to look for it in your own garden is vitally important, and I’ve written a guide to help you - you can read it here.

Trees provide your garden with shade

Let’s start by stating the bleeding obvious: more trees = more shade…duh. But a lot of people overlook the value of having patches of dappled shade throughout their gardens. Especially if you live in Australia, you’ll be used to summers with hot, dry heat and a lot of harsh sunlight.

Many non-native plants really struggle in these mid-summer conditions and adding trees to your garden can help provide a little reprieve for sun-sensitive plants. Having a few shady areas in your garden also means you can grow a wider variety of plants than you could grow if you had only full-sun. Things like NZ rock lilies, philodendrons, aquilegias, oyster plants and impatiens all flourish in dappled shade and away from the harsh glare of the summer sun.

Trees help to support healthy soil

Another benefit of growing trees in your garden is that they help to support and improve your soil. Their root systems add structure to the soil, prevent run-off and erosion and improve soil aeration and drainage.

As the tree pushes its roots through the soil, it creates spaces for water to drain through and for air to be stored. This can be a great way to start improving soil that has poor drainage (admittedly not such a problem in our sandy soils, but useful if you’ve got yourself a garden with heavy clay soil!).

Trees act as wind breaks and create shelter for smaller plants

Trees and large shrubs also benefit your garden by acting as wind breaks and providing added shelter to the garden. If you have an especially windy garden, work out where the wind is usually coming from and consider planting a row of trees that will act as a wind break, shielding the rest of your garden on windy days.

Leaves provide mulch for the garden

Deciduous trees (which drop their leaves in autumn) also provide the added benefit of free mulch for your garden! Rake up the mulch and either add it to your compost tumbler or store it in reusable garden bags, allowing for a little moisture to enter the bags and help the leaves decompose. After 6-12 months you’ll have a wonderful mulch to add to your garden beds.

Trees help with your ‘pest’ control

In a roundabout way, trees can really help control your so-called garden ‘pests’ (aka the harmless, friendly critters who eat things you don’t want them to eat).

Here’s how it works: trees attract birds. A garden with plenty of trees is a more attractive destination for a wide variety of birds. The more birds you have hanging out in your garden, the more insects they will eat! Attracting birds to your garden is a much more enjoyable way to control pests than wasting your time with pesticides and sprays, so as far as I’m concerned, trees are an essential ingredient for a healthy, bird-filled garden.

In our garden, birds seem to especially like our pecan tree and our crepe myrtles. Other bird-attracting trees include grevilleas, banksias and callistemons (bottlebrush).

A willy wagtail nest in our mango tree

Trees help cool your garden in summer

Trees have a massively beneficial effect on the temperature of your garden. They absorb water from the ground via their roots and then, through transpiration, release that water into the surrounding air.

This cools the space beneath and around the trees on warm days, helping to lower the overall temperature in your garden during the daytime. At night, cooler temperatures cause water molecules in the air to condense back as droplets on the leaves of your trees. This warms the air around the tree, helping to keep your garden warmer at night.

Trees improve your garden design

Trees add permanent structure to your garden and so can really help create a space that is beautiful to look at and be in.

Often, even people with bigger backyards think they should plant only one or two trees, or they might place several trees around the perimeter of their garden, leaving the space in the middle empty in the hope of creating a sense of spaciousness. Paradoxically, planting trees this way can make your garden feel smaller rather than bigger.

In a yard that is planted only on the perimeters, you can cast your eye over the entire garden in a few seconds. If, instead, you place trees throughout the garden, there will be a feeling of having to explore further, to walk around those trees and see into the hidden nooks and crannies they obscure.

It is these unseen and unexplored spaces in a garden that give it that magic feeling, like a fairy garden in a children’s book; a place where you can ramble and get lost. Strategically placed trees help you achieve this, increasing a garden’s feeling of mystery and seclusion.

Misconceptions about growing trees

Unhelpfully, there are a heap of misconceptions about trees that serve no purpose other than to prevent people from planting them. These are best ignored. Here are a few of the most common:

“THEIR ROOTS WILL SPREAD THROUGH THE GARDEN, RUINING IT FOR EVERYTHING ELSE”

This really depends on the types of trees you’re growing. Some trees do have root systems that spread through entire gardens, deplete the soil and make growing other plants difficult if not impossible. Fortunately in my experience not many trees actually do this. Here’s a great list of trees with invasive roots that are probably best to avoid planting in your garden (I can definitely confirm that Ficus trees are NOT a good idea - there were three in our garden when we moved in, and removing them has improved the soil and nearby beds immeasurably).

If you make sure to avoid planting trees with invasive root systems, you’ll find that you can plant plenty of amazing trees while still having a garden that is able to support many other plants - in some cases, the trees will even help you to grow a wider variety of other plants). A few trees with shallow, non-invasive root systems are citrus trees, crepe myrtles, paw paws, Illawarra flame trees, olives and apple trees.

Other trees - like pomegranates - don’t have shallow roots, rather, they have a tap root that shoots straight down. This makes them hardy (less susceptible to drought) and - as long as you don’t plant them right on top of a sewage system, they’re unlikely to wander too far around your garden causing trouble.

It’s worth noting that a lot of lists you’ll see online for trees with non-invasive roots include maple trees. I find these exceptionally hard to grow in Perth soil (they like rich, acidic soils, not out ‘gutless’ sand) and I’ve already killed two, so I’d recommend going for the tougher, easier options listed above first.

“THEY ALL GROW MASSIVE”

Fortunately this isn’t true! A lot of medium sized trees will only grow between 2-4 metres, which allows for a lovely slightly-shady canopy but won’t dominate your entire garden. You can also get dwarf trees that will only grow 1-2 metres - many fruit trees are now available as dwarf trees, so you could plant a whole heap of them in your garden without sacrificing too much space.

If you’re short on space but would like to plant more trees, consider espaliering them (this is where you prune them flat against a wall, making them very compact and limiting their shade).

“YOU CAN ONLY FIT IN ABOUT 1-2 TREES IN ANY GIVEN GARDEN”

Also definitely not true. I just counted and have over 30 productive trees growing in our garden at the moment (we live on a 655m2 block, but at least half of that is taken up by the house). If you pick your trees wisely you can usually grow A LOT more than you think. And you’ll find that adding trees and other big plants to a smaller garden actually makes it appear bigger.

“THEY CAN’T BE GROWN IN POTS”

Actually a lot of trees can be grown in pots! This can be a great way to start your own garden if you live in a rental property and aren’t able to plant directly into the ground. Dwarf fruit trees, curry leaf trees, bay trees, citrus trees, pomegranates, olives, figs and many others can grow really well in large pots. If you’re not ready to start putting trees in the ground, find yourself a big pot at least 70cm in diameter, fill it with good quality potting mix and plant a tree in there!

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