Tree border. Help a girl out!

[Mumstheword1983]

I want to plant trees as a border in my garden it is sloped (steep) and around 2.5 meters in length. (The part that I would like to plant). I would like these to be at least 2 meters at full height and not too difficult to maintain myself. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I have no clue!

Post a pic, what direction does the sun shine, what type of soil do you have, you can get a soil tester kit. You won't get a 2m tree but a nice quick growing shrub will look nice, photina,griselina, laurel.

You're right you have no clue because 2 metres full height is pretty much never a tree but a shrub. Trees are those big fuckers that you have to look up at! They grow to 5, 10, 20, 30 metres or more.
So. Shrubs. Vast choice. Flowering or not? Evergreen or not? What kind of soil have you got?

How big is the garden and how far away from the house is the border? Sunny or shady where this border is? Do you want blossom? Evergreen? Is it for screening/privacy or just to have lovely trees?

Some commonly chosen garden trees that don’t get too large (although some of these do have large varieties):

Silver birch
Amelanchier
Ornamental pear, cherry, apple
Olive (needs sun)
Acer (usually grown as a single feature rather than several together)
Sorbus/rowan

There are also some “trees” sold which are actually shrubs but have been trained into a lollipop shape to be more tree like. A lot of these are evergreen. For example photinia, laurel, bay.

You could try a website like Paramount Plants as a starter, this will give you a searchable range of options and also give you an idea of cost. They have helpful photos of what the tree you buy for £x actually looks like (usually pretty small!).

I would suggest paying a decent gardener to plant the trees, trees are expensive so it’s worth investing in preparation of the soil and proper supports etc.

This sounds like a hedge?

Just clocked the 2m full height. Agree with the pp that’s a shrub.

Although I do actually have an acer and an olive that are not much over 2m each - olives in particular get fatter rather than taller. But the rest of my list of trees are more like 5-6m plus.

What about a flamingo salix?

My beech hedge is 2 metres - native and beautiful summer and winter - bare root whips cheap as chips

A few suggestions of trees that grow to around 2- 3 metres and are well-behaved and easy to maintain at a manageable height…

Dwarf Ornamental flowering cherry trees:
Prunus Incisa 'Kojo-no-mai' (Dwarf Fuji Cherry);
Prunus Little Pink Perfection;

Dwarf Crab apple trees:
Malus Admiration;
Malus Sargentii
Malus Aros

Dwarf Rowan trees:
Sorbus Vilmorinii
Sorbus Red Robin

Other trees
Magnolia Susan

Chinese Redbud Avondale (Cercis Chinensis Avondale)

Irish Golden Yew - (Taxus baccata Fastigiata Aurea) - It will grow tall if left unpruned eventually, but it's very slow growing (about 20 years to reach 4 metres height), it has a narrow column habit and very easy to trim to size. Red berries in winter and a golden glow of new foliage in spring.

The shrimp-leaved Sycamore - Acer pseudoplatanus 'Brilliantissimum'. A top-grafted tree (which restricts the trunk height); slow-growing; salmon pink leaves emerging in spring turning to lime green in summer, and yellow in autumn. (It's not a Japanese Acer and it's very easy to grow).

Check the growing conditions for each tree to see if it might suit your garden. Crab apples are usually very resilient trees with year round interest.

Oh thanks very much I will make a start to looking these up! Appreciate it 🙂

If you go to the Crocus Plants site, you put in soil type, evergreen, wildlife friendly , facing sun direction, and it shows you shrubs and trees. You can then get an idea and look at local plant suppliers. You will also need compost.

Take a look at Barcham Tree nursery. Its website reads like an encyclopaedia . They specialise in fully grown trees so maybe out of your budget. It will however give you a starting point for research all in one place. They are very helpful if you need to email for advice.

Ok I am going to post a picture as I am not an experienced gardener and this will help. I have a very large and steep garden. This is where our current landscaping ends. The part of the garden beyond this railing I can't afford to landscape at the moment. We have sea views so we have landscaped the part of the garden with the beat views. I am looking to create a barrier here.

It's a south facing garden and very warm (as warm as we get in Scotland)

*best views

I would plant dwarf fruit trees, apple/crab apple, patio cherry etc so they are useful and pretty.

Consider if you want evergreen to screen all year round, or deciduous.

Multi stems will be shorter (about half its usual height)

multistem amelanchier
Multistem Judas tree
Japanese acers can be short
cercis canadensis

But here I would pack in about 3 multistem betula grayswood or 3 betula nigra multistem.

You mean you want something nice on the other side of that seat/balcony? And the land on the other side is yours and slopes to the south? I think it would be better with something natural looking, and suspect it’s pretty exposed.

I would be paralysed with choice too.

If you forced me I’d probably go for a crab apple.

(@brambleberries my Susan, which is looking lovely now, is a good 5m tall at about 20 years old.)

Assuming you just want to improve the view and hide scruffy hill - I’d be inclined to put up some kind of trellis for support and grow fast climbers - clematis and ivy (for winter colour). Then grow trees/bushes in slow time.

Depending on how much money you want to spend on the support system (could just be a few posts and some wire) if will eventually collapse if not maintained, but by then you have the trees behind.

we have put in a more sturdy trellis and planted wisteria as well as clematis and honeysuckle (the smell from the honeysuckle is divine). Years later the wisteria is astoundingly beautiful.

Ps Ifyou went for a trellis, you could make it taller one end, so the steep slope isn’t so obvious.

Yes I want to hide the part of th garden that is A of no use to me and B not looking good! It will also act as a deterrent to my children as I don't want them trying to climb over.

Thanks for all suggestions. I will start looking at all of these ideas.

Looking at your photo of the site on the uncultivated slope... I've had a garden with a similar slope at the far end and south facing (though not as large an area, and not in Scotland).

My advice (after a steep learning experience!) ... don't plant any cultivated trees here. They won't compete with the native flora without a lot of work and cultivation... it'll be a constant battle. Steep slopes are hard work and can be unsafe if the ground underfoot is very dry or very wet and slippery - which happens a lot of the year.

I would look at the native trees growing on the slope already... in Scotland near the coast, it's likely to be a combination of Rowan, Downy birch, Hazel, Hawthorn and a few others. They often grow shorter and twisted to cope with the exposed environment.

Choose a couple of species you like the look of already growing there, and plant saplings behind your balcony as a screen. They'll be well adapted to this environment, be resilient and need very little care after a couple of seasons of watering. If you need to control height, trim off the leader stems to promote multi-stem growth from the base.

Thanks. So do you think it would be too difficult to grow crab apple trees as I do like the look of these.

The dwarf crab apples I've listed are all grafted at the base onto a dwarf root stock. They need staking to help them develop stability and a good root system.

You could give it a go. Preparation to overcome soil, wind, water, and stability issues will help, including staking, water and nutrient management to help it succeed on the difficult terrain. Steer away from M9 and M27 root stocks (it's usually on the label but you can also check with the supplier), as these are probably not going to be robust enough. Root stock M26 is semi vigorous but will still need staking and some care.

For a vigorous root stock, look for MM111 which has excellent anchorage once established and can thrive in difficult soils and terrain - but trees with this root stock are going to be somewhat larger and perhaps taller than your requirements.

Another option is to choose the native crab apple Malus Sylvestris. It isn't grafted and is very resilient. But it's long-lived and can grow quite tall - although the slope and conditions are likely to keep it smaller and more compact than more favourable spots.

I had no idea it was this complicated. I appreciate the help. My auntie normally helps me with all this but we lost my uncle recently and she's not up to it and not well herself.

I will look at this.