Garden guy column: Tree time
With deciduous trees now dormant or nearly so and evergreen trees’ growth slowed by colder weather, it is the perfect time to plan for and plant trees. Since our weather is relatively mild all winter, trees planted now will make good progress in establishing their root systems before the hot weather of next summer.
Trees are an investment in the future. For those of us in semi-arid, largely treeless west Texas they have even greater importance. The benefits of trees are many including providing protection for people and animals alike from the sun and wind, cooling areas around them, cleaning the air and removing carbon dioxide and other gases while producing oxygen, and providing nice views or screening bad ones. There are also intangible benefits like providing a sense of place, home or protection, and calming and assisting in healing. Trees can save money by lowering energy bills and earn money by adding value to real estate. I’m sure you can list even more benefits.
Regardless of your age or stage of life, planting a tree will benefit you as well as everyone else. Clearly, if you will be living in your house for the foreseeable future, perhaps even permanently, a tree planted today will reap benefits from now on. The same is true even if you move next year because the next person will benefit as well as all others who will see it. Think how our older parks and neighborhoods would look if someone had not planted trees 50, 100, or more years ago.
Give careful thought to the selection and placement of trees. No matter how much you love them, sugar maples will not thrive in Amarillo. Use native or trees adapted to our environmental conditions. Research the mature size of the tree. One does not have to drive very far to see large trees and shrubs covering the windows of a house or encroaching on a sidewalk, driveway, or into power lines. When this happens, the tree must be cut down or worse, pruned into an unsightly and unnatural shape to accommodate its space.
Most trees grow slowly and are small when planted. It is difficult and requires great discipline to place such a plant in the middle of an expanse of lawn looking as if it was a mistake. Also to be considered is the spacing from one tree to the next when planting a group. If the mature width is 40 feet, they should be about 40 feet apart to allow each tree to develop fully while still reaching the next one. And don’t forget to look up to see what is located at the mature tree height.
It is not difficult to determine proper tree placement. Think of the look in 20 or 40 years. It is always a shame to need to cut down a healthy, mature tree, especially in our neck of the woods. Of course, all the above is also true for shrubs.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Garden guy column: Tree time
