Create a tranquil and timeless haven of trees at the bottom of the garden and relax in the privacy of your own miniature woodland in springtime. It's a natural way to soften the shapes of surrounding houses and blur garden boundaries, and can be effective in all but the smallest plot.
A tracery of branches creates interest at eye level and on up into the sky, and, if chosen carefully, trees may offer spring flowers, attractive summer foliage and autumn fireworks, as well as providing winter form and texture.
Start as spring bursts into action and focus your planting energies for this season on the woodland understorey. |
|
Contrast the stature of tall trees with swathes of delicate bulbs and early flowering perennials; they'll be particularly happy under deciduous varieties, making the most of sunlight before foliage develops. Install a low, log bench in a sunny glade, and add to the atmosphere with wooden carvings or wildlife habitats of driftwood and bird boxes.
Existing groups of trees may be pollarded |
|
or coppiced to a more manageable size, and then maintained in this way in future years, a few each time, to ensure a continuous display. Clear the area surrounding the trees of all weeds, and construct narrow, meandering pathways of bark, gravel or log sections.
Top up poor soil with humus rich material and fill with flowing drifts of Galanthus nivalis, chionodoxa, scillas, dwarf narcissi, cyclamen, Convallaria majalis and Eranthis hyemalis. Intersperse with random groupings of Brunnera macrophylla, epimedium, pulmonaria, Anemone nemorosa, tiarella, primulas, omphalodes, trillium, corydalis and dicentra. Include ferns such as |
