Steven A. Frowine - Gardening Basics For Dummies

Trees can raise your property value, improve air quality, prevent erosion, lower your air conditioning costs with welcome shade, and provide a handy support for your hammock. Not too shabby, eh?

For most home gardeners, trees in the landscape are often already present but need care and pruning to look good and remain healthy. Or you may be shopping for one or more ornamental or fruiting trees to add. As with shrubs, your options include deciduous (ones that drop their leaves each fall; they may flower and fruit or have berries or seedpods) and evergreen (with leaves or needles that remain year-round).

Favorite trees for home landscapes include

Flowering and deciduous: Catalpa, dogwood, dove tree, golden chain tree, horse chestnut, magnolia, redbud, serviceberry, silk tree, snowbell, and stewartia

Shade trees: Ash, basswood, beech, catalpa, elm, ginkgo, honey locust, Kentucky coffee tree, linden, locust, various maples, various oaks, sourwood, sweet gum, and tupelo

Evergreen: Arborvitae, cedar, cypress, false cypress, fir, hemlock, juniper, Norfolk Island pine, pine, spruce, and yew

Fruit and nut trees: Almond, apple, apricot, avocado, cherry, chestnut, citrus, crabapple, fig, filbert (hazelnut), juneberry, loquat, mulberry, nectarine, olive, pawpaw, peach, pear, pecan, plum, quince, and walnut

Roles trees can play involve things like

Shade

Privacy (including noise reduction)

Grandeur and substance in the landscape

Food (fruits, berries, and nuts — for you and your family as well as for wildlife)

Decorative beauty due to foliage (including fall color!)

Shelter and food for birds and other wild creatures

Referring to any trees as terrible may be heresy, but some trees can cause real problems like producing huge quantities of seeds that sprout all over where they aren’t wanted and messy seed heads or fruit that are a pain to clean up. Some trees produce soft, weak growth that results in limbs breaking and falling on your house. Some of the undesirables are boxelder (sheds fruit and twigs, plus shelters yucky boxelder bugs), Bradford pear (heavy seeding and splitting branches), ginkgo (stinky fruit), silver maple (splitting branches), sweetgum (nuisance spiny balls), and tree of heaven (weak weedy growth). For checking out other invasive trees refer to www.invasive.org/species/trees.cfm .

For much more information on trees in general, please turn to Chapter 12. For info on fruit and nut trees, check out Chapter 18.

Annual vines like morning glory, nasturtium, moonflower, and so on aren’t woody, but vines — woody or not — can be a substantial presence in your landscape. Vines like to grow upward, though some need assistance in terms of occasional judicious pruning/trimming, guidance, and/or support.

Some vines are valued mainly for their lush foliage. Others flower and fruit, with attractive seedheads or berries by fall — all factors that naturally add to their appeal and affect placement and maintenance. Choose vines based on whether and when you want these extra, color-contributing features. Also, when purchasing, be sure to inquire about predicted mature size.

Some of my favorite vines for home landscapes that are both attractive and have bird and wildlife appeal are

Bougainvillea

Clematis

Climbing hydrangea

Climbing roses

Creeping fig

Dutchman’s pipe

Grape

Honeysuckle

Jasmine

Kiwi

Mandevilla

Roles vines can play include

Cloaking or disguising a fence (especially if it’s unattractive; or just use vines to make it into a more substantial barrier)

Climbing a trellis that’s either against a wall or fence or out in the open (if well-supported)

Covering a gazebo to give shade and privacy as well as beauty

Decorating a pillar, arbor, or pergola, adding shade and beauty as well as making a major contribution to your garden landscape

Adding extra, vertical color to your garden (which is especially nice if your garden is small or you want to give it a feeling of enclosure)

Draping over an outbuilding or shed, an old or dead tree trunk, or another larger structure in need of some softening or disguise

Providing flowers and edible fruit for decorating and eating

Note: Even ridiculously strong vines can’t help you swing from tree to tree, namely because they’re attached to the ground and not-so-attached at the top. If you really don’t want to stay grounded, Chapter 19can give you info on installing a tire swing. For much more information on vines, please turn to Chapter 14. I address climbing roses in more detail in Chapter 9.

Some vines are rogues. They may smother or pull down supports, provide a haven for porch- or trellis-munching insects, shed too much, or produce unwanted many seedlings. A few to watch out for are akebia, Chinese wisteria, English ivy, Japanese honeysuckle, kudzu, Oriental bittersweet, porcelain vine, trumpet creeper, and wintercreeper. I’ve seen some of these vines used very effectively in certain circumstances. Just be careful and know that they can outgrow their welcome. For more info on invasive vines, check out www.invasive.org/species/vines.cfm .

Some gardeners love lawn care; others think it’s just a necessary chore. Whichever way you feel, one thing can’t be denied: Lawns, even small ones, can define a garden. They frame and provide a backdrop for all your other plants. If your lawn looks shabby, unfortunately, the rest of your garden creations just don’t look as good.

I appreciate that everyone these days is pressed for time and can’t spend the time on manicuring their turf like golf course managers do, so in Chapter 11, I give you the basic, nitty-gritty information so that your lawn can do you proud without taking too much time away from the rest of your creative garden pursuits.

Chapter 2

IN THIS CHAPTER

Working with what you already have

Deciding on your garden style

Staying within your budget

Setting up your garden plans

Hiring a professional

Consider your ideal garden. Perhaps you know you want a handsome woodland shade garden, but what’ll it look like? Or maybe you know you want a sunny cottage garden, but what’s your vision? Getting to this point in your garden planning is a bit like shopping for a blue shirt. You know you want a shirt and you know you want it to be blue, but you still have plenty of options. Now’s the time to narrow in on your target.

By assessing your gardening wants and needs and what you already have available for your garden, you can come up with the best garden for you. In this chapter, I lead you through the processes that can help you clarify your vision, and I explain how you can start making your dream garden a reality.