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Landscape around big tree


Landscaping Around Trees: 12 Secret Tips for Pro Results

Photo: istockphoto.com

While trees bring shade and beauty to a residential landscape, the ground around tree trunks can become a barren blight—and you can blame thirsty roots that draw up all the water and heavy branches that prevent sunlight from reaching the soil, making it tough for other plants to thrive. Fortunately, with the following tips, you can transform those desolate areas of landscaping around trees on your property, adding color, texture, and other design elements, all while maintaining the health of the tree.

DO maintain the existing soil level at the trunk.

One common mistake that homeowners make is to create a raised border around a tree and then fill it in with soil to create a planting bed. The additional soil around the trunk can cause the bark to rot, leaving the tree susceptible to disease and insect infestation. If you want to put in landscaping around tree roots that involves a raised bed, consider constructing an inside border one to two feet away from the trunk to keep the soil from smothering the base of the tree.

DON’T add soil over turf.

If you are making a garden bed near or around your trees, dig out any existing lawn grass before adding soil. You might assume that grass would simply decompose under the soil, but if it’s thick it can create a layer of dense thatch that blocks water and oxygen from reaching the tree roots. By removing grass before building the bed with soil, the tree roots will receive the nutrients they need to keep the tree healthy and strong.

Photo: istockphoto.com

DO select plants adapted to the special light conditions under the tree.

Some trees, such as maples and magnolias, allow dappled sun through their boughs. Others, including most evergreens, permit virtually no sunlight near their trunks. Before choosing plants, observe the amount of shade under the tree at different times of the day. Deep-shade plants such as ferns and hostas can thrive nearest the trunk, while semi-sun varieties like lily of the valley and coral bells can grow under the perimeter of the tree’s branches.

RELATED: 7 Signs Your Tree is Dying—and How to Save It

DON’T damage tree roots when planting.

Trees (including white oak and hickory) send down deep roots, but others (such as maple and cypress) have roots just beneath the surface, or, in some cases, even extending above the ground. Cutting into these roots with a shovel can severely damage a tree. Instead, use a hand trowel and carefully scoop out as much soil as you need to fit new plants into place. If you run into a root, stop digging and select a different spot for the plant.

DO mulch when establishing plantings beneath a tree.

Whether you’re creating an entire raised bed or just tucking a few ferns here and there, the tree’s roots will continue to absorb the lion’s share of the water in the soil. Adding 2 to 3 inches of mulch around the base of new plants will help keep moisture in the soil so you won’t have to water constantly. There are many types of mulch; use either commercial mulch, such as pine straw or wood chips, or recycled dried leaves.

DON’T pile mulch against the tree trunk.

The same rule that goes for soil goes for mulch: Don’t cover the base of the tree trunk with a “mulch volcano.” Leave 8 to 10 inches of bare ground around the tree trunk when adding mulch.

Photo: istockphoto.com

DO consider bricks and rocks as plant alternatives.

Sure, plants are pretty around the base of a tree, but they require water and maintenance in the form of regular fertilizing and occasional trimming. If you haven’t time to care for plants, create a landscape border of bricks, large stones, or commercial edging to keep small rocks from tumbling out on the lawn. This is an especially good option for trees with roots that extend above the ground, which make planting difficult. Just remember to leave 8 to 10 inches between the rocks and the tree trunk.

DON’T use solid plastic sheeting under rocks.

Plastic landscape sheeting creates an impermeable barrier between the rocks and the soil. While this helps prevent weeds from growing between the rocks, it can damage trees, blocking oxygen and water from reaching the roots. A better option is to use porous landscape fabric beneath the rock layer and then pull stray weeds by hand should they appear.

Photo: istockphoto.com

DO incorporate a large tree into an outdoor living area.

If you wish to put a deck or a patio where a large tree already thrives, you needn’t cut it down to proceed with your construction plans. Building around the tree will give you the best of both worlds: The deck or patio will provide attractive tree landscaping and you’ll have instant shade for your entertaining area.

Photo: istockphoto.com

DON’T crowd the tree with a deck or patio.

The inside perimeter of a deck built around a tree should be a minimum of 2 feet from the tree’s trunk to allow the trunk to grow, farther if you anticipate more growth. The inside border of a patio (because it’s solid and will block water and air) should be 3 to 7 feet (or more) away from the tree to give the roots plenty of surface area to absorb water. Plants or rocks can be used to landscape the space nearer the trunk (see above).

DO add relaxing elements to under-tree landscaping.

Photo: istockphoto.com

A mature tree with ample headroom beneath its branches is just begging for a charming bench, birdbath, or hammock. If you have the space, turn the area beneath a shade tree into a delightful spot for enjoying a cup of tea and a good book after a long day’s work.

DON’T leave your trees in the dark.

Photo: istockphoto.com

After all the hard work that went into landscaping around your trees, don’t leave them in the dark when the sun goes down. Make the most of your new yard design by adding a few well-placed accent lights around the base. By installing solar or low-voltage landscape lights to softly illuminate plantings and rocks, you’ll incorporate a whole new design element in the project.

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15 Ideas for Landscaping Around Trees

By

Lisa Hallett Taylor

Lisa Hallett Taylor

Lisa Hallett Taylor is an expert in architecture and landscape design who has written more than 1,000 articles about pool, patio, garden, and home improvement over 12 years. She has a bachelor's degree in Environmental Design and is certified in fine and decorative arts appraisal.

Learn more about The Spruce's Editorial Process

Updated on 03/18/21

The Spruce / Michelle Becker

The ground underneath and surrounding a tree is often neglected, resulting in bare dirt, exposed tree roots, and a few volunteer plants that aren't necessarily welcome. Discover ways to landscape a forgotten area that will make the tree and what it shades much more appealing.

Finding a solution isn't a one-size-fits-all scenario. There's a concern for damaging the tree's roots, dealing with dry soil, irrigation (too much or too little), shade, limited space (those roots!), and dappled light. Keep in mind that not all landscaping requires plants: hardscape in the form of decks, gravel, or mulch might be just the right fix.

The traditional way of landscaping beneath or around a tree was to edge it in brick, stone, or rubber. If you wanted to get creative, you'd plant impatiens, begonias, and maybe a few shade-tolerant bulbs—until the area became overrun with weeds, the snails and slugs invaded, or it started to look just plain bad. The results are often surprising: you don't expect something to be planted in these spaces, but once they are, you realize that it's unused real estate that is just waiting to be beautified.

Get inspired by these smart and beautiful ways to landscape under and around a tree.

Great Trees of Japan: Hot Summer

text and photo: Takahashi Hiroshi

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Exhibitions

On a hot summer day, it is very pleasant to hide from the wide branches of a scorching tree in the wide branches of a scorching sun. From one kind of such trees, it is as if you feel a breath of a cool breeze. Here we will talk about three trees that are good to visit in the summer.

For trees, summer is a time of growth, when they gain strength, but it is also a time of hard trials for them.

When the sun is at its strongest, in the unbearable heat, the trees evaporate water through their leaves to prevent overheating. A pleasant coolness in the shade of a huge tree appears not only because it protects from the sun - the reason here is also that due to evaporation, the temperature around it decreases. Few trees bloom in summer, and this is also due to the fact that they have to protect themselves from the heat.
It would seem, what can sunlight do to such huge creatures as giant trees? However, in reality they are very sensitive to the slightest changes in the environment.

When I look at a huge tree in summer, my childhood memories come back to life, when I used to play on the territory of a Shinto shrine until the evening during summer holidays, and cicadas chirped loudly around. When the shadow of the large "divine tree" became longer, it meant that it was time to return home soon. Remembering this time of my life, I chose the trees I want to talk about.

Great Laurel of Nagasaka

If you drive about ten kilometers north of the fishing port town of Himi, which is located where the Noto Peninsula joins the mainland, you can admire the gently sloping slopes on which terraced fields are arranged and along the road you will see a lone laurel tree standing out against the background of the surrounding landscape. This is the Great Laurel of Nagasaka.

A long time ago, the main trunk broke, so the laurel is not that tall, but the tree branched out at the level of two meters and spread its branches wide, and the shape began to resemble a huge bonsai. This is a very beautiful laurel.

Like the camphor tree, laurel belongs to the laurel family and also loves warmth. Giant trees are especially common near the sea coast. Judging by the fact that even in the regions affected by the tsunami during the Great East Japan Earthquake, they did not suffer damage from salty sea water and remained healthy, such trees have become quite accustomed to the sea. Laurel also lives well in the vicinity of the sea.

There is a large hollow in the trunk, but despite this the tree is quite healthy, and some branches sprout towards the ground, which also indicates a good condition of the tree. If you climb into the crown, then even during the day there is twilight and a refreshing coolness is felt.

The very area where this giant tree is located is also interesting. The village of Nagasaka is located on gentle mountain slopes, and the beautiful terraced fields that spread around the tree are among the top 100 terraced fields in Japan.

Great Chestnut Fudotaki

There are many famous waterfalls in Chichibu, Fudotaki is one of the most famous, but the chestnut near it, standing as if it wants to climb closer to the waterfall, is not very famous, and on the explanatory on the sign at the old path of state highway 140, from where they go to the waterfall, not a word is said about this tree.

From the old road, you need to go down a steep slope for fifty meters, and then cross the Arakawa River on a suspension bridge, and then climb another hundred meters up - this route requires some effort. After about 20 minutes, we reach the crest of the mountain, and suddenly a landscape opens up in front of us with the majestic Fudotaki waterfall, which is breathtaking. The waterfall has a height of about 50 meters and consists of three cascades. It is full-flowing and is a beautiful sight. In front of him stands a tree similar to a traveler frozen in admiration and forgetting himself - this is the Great Chestnut Fudotaki. The waterfall, together with the tree, as if its eternal companion, is a wonderful composition and seems to be asking for a picture.

Crimson and horse chestnut trees love moisture, so trees with roots located near the river are not at all uncommon, but it is rare for a giant tree to grow near such a famous waterfall. To see a landscape in which a huge tree beautifully covered with moss is adjacent to a beautiful waterfall is a great success.

The chestnut grows on the same rock that formed the waterfall. He spread his roots wide to capture as much land as possible, braiding the stones with roots that support the giant tree. It's amazing that he manages to stand for so many years and grow so big. This is a wonderful place to take a break from the summer heat, and I would spend whole days here if time allowed.

Creeping cryptomeria Shimokuroda

Since the Heian period (794–1192), the Katanami river basin has been a state forest (misoma gore), from where construction material was supplied for buildings in the capital, including for the imperial palaces.

This huge forest of cryptomeria is a beautiful place with its own special atmosphere. The local cryptomeria differ from ordinary trees with a straight trunk, in these ancient trees several trunks depart from one root at once, this is the so-called. fukujodai-sugi, "creeping cryptomeria". Daisugi are cryptomeria that have several stems growing from one base. They are cut one by one, new ones appear in their place, and from one cryptomeria using this ancient technology for more than 300 years it is possible to produce more and more new logs.

Due to changes in architectural style, the demand for such wood for rafters decreased, and from the beginning of the Muromachi period (1336–1573), daisugi were no longer used, forgotten, and left for several hundred years. They continued to live and grow, and by our time have reached almost the maximum size for a tree. The girth of the trunk in some reaches 15 meters, and at the sight of huge trunks and bizarrely twisted branches, it is impossible not to feel reverence for them.

Daisugi forests stretch along the ridge of mountains in Kyoto from Keihoku in the Uke region to Hanase in the Sake region, and these places are especially valuable because here you can vividly experience all the former grandeur of the ancient capital. This area is a special conservation area of ​​Kyoto Prefecture. There are hiking trails, and because they lead deep into the mountains, there are guided tours. In this reserve there are more than 250 cryptomeria, the girth of which exceeds 3 meters. A person who has stepped into this forest feels as if he has entered another dimension. The circular route is good for a leisurely three-hour walk, and this forest is a great place to take a break from everyday worries.

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Overview of the 10 oldest trees in Ukraine

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These trees are as old as the world. Some of them even remember the times of Kievan Rus and the Cossacks. Meet these ten most famous ancient trees of Ukraine.

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1.

Linden Bohdan Khmelnytsky

Recognized the oldest lime tree in our country. This old lady for over 600 years. She lives in Lviv area, near the Sasov-Koltov highway. As the locals say, this tree in 1648 rested hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky.

2. Three oaks Taras Shevchenko

trees for more than 1000 years, they grow in the village Budishche. It is believed that in the hollow of one from these thousand-year-old Shevchenko oaks in I hid my drawings as a child.

Oak Shevchenko №1. Height - 20 m, girth - 8.4 m, age - over 1000 years.

3. Zaporozhye oak

To him already 700 years old. Grows in the city of Zaporozhye, near the tributaries of the Upper Khortitsa river. The height of the mighty tree - 36 m.

4. Olive Herodotus

A this is the oldest tree in Ukraine. The olive tree is already 2000 years old! You can find her in Nikitsky Botanical Garden in Yalta.

5. Prince Apple tree

famous apple tree from the town of Krolevets is 250 years old. IN people call it the "dancing" tree, because there are 10 more growing around the apple tree old stems.

6. Oak Champion

This grandfather is already 1300 years old. This is the oldest oak our country. Probably the most powerful. You need to look for a unique tree in the village Stuzhytsa of the Transcarpathian region.

7. Chestnut Petra Mogila

Most old chestnut grows in the capital. According to legend, it was planted by the Metropolitan himself Grave.

8. Strawberry Jena

Most old strawberry grows on the mountain Ai-Nikola in the Crimea. The tree is already 1300 years old. His height - 10 meters.

9. Oak Maxim Zaliznyak

Luxurious a huge tree grows in the village of Buda in Cherkasy region. Oak count 1100 years. It is named in honor of People's avenger Maxim Zaliznyak. Under the crown of the Zaliznyak tree, together with held meetings with his haidamaks.

10. Golden Linden

growing near the road in the city of Buchach Ternopil areas. Lipa is 600 years old. They say under in the 17th century, a peace treaty was signed Poland with Turkey.

Here so rich in natural wonders our Ukraine. Be sure to visit these unique trees during their trips on native land . And straight Now watch a fascinating video about them:

More amazing about trees and plants search here:

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