Ideas on Planting Trees

Planting Large Yard Trees

• Trees add a third dimension to landscaping in your yard. Tall trees can expand your sense of space to a height of 50 to 80 feet, creating a leafy roof stretching nearly as wide. Red maple (Acer rubrum), hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 3 through 9, reaches a height of 40 to 70 feet, with a 30- to 50-foot canopy. Whether you choose a slow-growing tree (generally defined as adding a foot or less to its height each year) or a fast-growing one (which can grow more than 2 feet a year), adding a medium-sized (25- to 40-foot) or large (over 40-foot) tree to your yard changes the shape of your landscape on a long-term basis. Locate tall to medium-sized trees at least 20 feet from the house for healthy growth. Energy and forestry professionals estimate that the shade from properly-located trees can save you as much as 30 percent of your utility costs.

Other Yard Tree Ideas

• Especially in a smaller yard, trees have functions besides shading the whole house. Planting a small (12- to 25-foot) or medium-sized tree can create a focal point in a flat or otherwise uninteresting landscape. Building a berm for a small ornamental tree can be a do-it-yourself project creating new contours even in a small yard. Choose a small or medium-sized tree for partial property shading, such as a terrace or patio. Trees with flowers, colorful fall foliage or wildlife-attracting berries bring visual interest to their area of the yard all year long. For tiny shade areas, trees like Japanese maples (Acer palmatum, Acer japonicum), varieties of which grow in a range of USDA zones from 5 through 9, grow well in large containers. Add fruit to your small yard in USDA zones 9 through 11 with a 6- to 10-foot Meyer lemon (Citrus x meyere Meyer) in a container. In USDA zones 3 through 8, a yard with space for two small or medium-sized apple trees (Malus domestica spp.) becomes a home orchard.

Planting Community Trees

• In many communities, programs once run exclusively by government have become public-private partnerships, allowing you to request and choose trees to be planted on your street, in parks or in larger environmental-restoration areas. Government entities participating in partnership programs range from small towns to the U.S. Forest Service. Program options range from planting a street tree in front of your house to renewing state or national forest wildlands. Often, tree-planting programs seek to restore native trees that have been lost to development or overwhelmed by nonnative plants. Some programs offer free trees in exchange for planting work and care, while others charge a fee or request donations.

Planting Trees Worldwide

• Another way to increase the resources trees bring to communities is to fund tree-planting programs abroad. Nonprofit programs throughout the world seek to address the damage done to trees by rapid urbanization, conversion of forest lands to cash-cropping, and dependence of growing populations on trees as a fuel source. Tree planting in many countries is also essential to repairing severe weather damage and reducing erosion of planting soil. For example, the more than 60 partners in the United Nations Billion Trees campaign offer a broad spectrum of tree-planting opportunities in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.