Landscaping - choosing trees

[Drellingore]

'ello folks,

 

Does anyone have any resources that they can recommend for choosing trees, or good 3D landscape design software that could use a drone scan as a starting point?

 

I've got 3 acres in which to start planting a forager's garden (think of it like a chaotic underplanted orchard) whilst I wait for planning to go through on the adjacent barn conversion. The field in which the planting will take place is where all the good views are from the property, so I need to think about lines of sight, height and spread of different trees, all that jazz.

 

A lot of resources that I find online for choose plants are much more, err... 'Aesthetically-minded' than I need. I'm not an arty sort (that's the missus' job), I just need to make sure that I'm blocking lines of sight when I want to, and not when I don't. Additionally it'd be great to get some recommendations on the bewildering myriad of 3D garden design tools out there. I'm reasonably nerdy (ex-programmer), so don't mind learning technical things.

 

Any suggestions would be most gratefully received. 

[Russell griffiths]

Having been in the tree business for 30 odd years, I would go for a walk around your local area and look at what sits naturally around there. 

Get a good tree id book and see what would fit in with the task you need it to perform. 

Tall and thin to hide a telegraph pole. 

Big and spreading to block out the nosey neighbour. 

What is good for wildlife, don’t forget hedges, you get far more living in a hedge than most trees. 

Try and stick to indigenous, and if you plant any conifers for hedging stick to western red cedar.

If you plant any leylandii  you need a swift kick in the gonads.    

[Mr Punter]

There are lots of garden designers who will do the work for a very small fee.  I once had a garden designed and was very impressed by the plant knowledge and the the design.  She did the drawing by hand and wrote out the planting list.  I could not have done it myself but I learnt a lot about plants and shrubs and where they like to be.

[twice round the block]

Barcham Trees & Majestic Trees both have very good Web sites which includes mature size and soil conditions for different species etc.

I've purchased 8 Trees from Majestic over a two year period and all are going well, even after the scorching summer we had.

 

[Jilly]

Lots of councils are offering free trees/hedging this winter, probably not edibles for your forest garden but might help on the boundary. 

[Drellingore]

57 minutes ago, Jilly said:

Lots of councils are offering free trees/hedging this winter, probably not edibles for your forest garden but might help on the boundary. 

 

Ooh, how comes? I haven't watched the news since April 2021, so I generally have no idea what's going on in the world

[JamesP]

If you are interested in growing both trees and agricultural / horticultural crops on the same piece of land have a look at the link below.

https://www.agroforestry.co.uk

We planted a thousand trees as soon as we moved onto our plot 12 years ago with a subsidy from Woodland Trust. 

Avoid the BBC.

[Drellingore]

11 hours ago, JamesP said:

Avoid the BBC.

But the kids like Strictly!

 

Sorry, I'm not sure what BBC stands for in this context - can you shine a light on my ignorance please?

[JamesP]

1 hour ago, Drellingore said:

But the kids like Strictly!

 

Sorry, I'm not sure what BBC stands for in this context - can you shine a light on my ignorance please?

HDD check required! 😉

[Drellingore]

9 minutes ago, JamesP said:

HDD check required! 😉

Ha, I know what it means in that context!

 

Getting back to SFW topics, I'd forgotten that I'd mentioned news. I was thinking there was some forestry organisation called the BBC or something!

[Jilly]

22 hours ago, Drellingore said:

 

Ooh, how comes? I haven't watched the news since April 2021, so I generally have no idea what's going on in the world

An environmental initiative. You could look on your local council website to see if they are doing it.

[Roger440]

On 22/11/2022 at 16:56, Russell griffiths said:

Having been in the tree business for 30 odd years, I would go for a walk around your local area and look at what sits naturally around there. 

Get a good tree id book and see what would fit in with the task you need it to perform. 

Tall and thin to hide a telegraph pole. 

Big and spreading to block out the nosey neighbour. 

What is good for wildlife, don’t forget hedges, you get far more living in a hedge than most trees. 

Try and stick to indigenous, and if you plant any conifers for hedging stick to western red cedar.

If you plant any leylandii  you need a swift kick in the gonads.    

 

Im at a similar point. However, walking around the area reveals very many Sitka and the like!

 

Theres a shelter belt to the west of our propery, all sitka or similar. My boundary runs along it. Im concscious that at some point, these will be harvested. So i want to plant something in front on my side. But what to do?

 

Clearly conifers will be more effective as they are ever green, but its hardly native!

 

Why do you say western red cedar specifically?

 

Sorry for thread hijack

[saveasteading]

30 minutes ago, Roger440 said:

Clearly conifers will be more effective as they are ever green, but its hardly native!

Larch is a conifer but deciduous.

Scots Pine, Juniper and Yew are native conifers.

 

[Russell griffiths]

16 hours ago, Roger440 said:

 

Im at a similar point. However, walking around the area reveals very many Sitka and the like!

 

Theres a shelter belt to the west of our propery, all sitka or similar. My boundary runs along it. Im concscious that at some point, these will be harvested. So i want to plant something in front on my side. But what to do?

 

Clearly conifers will be more effective as they are ever green, but its hardly native!

 

Why do you say western red cedar specifically?

 

Sorry for thread hijack

Western red cedar is one of very few conifers that have internal buds and growth, as well as being able to re shoot from a cut end. 

 

So all these overgrown conifers you see that are brown and dead in the centre, well you don’t get that with WRC. 

If you forget to prune them for a year and then need to give them a slightly harder hack than normal they will re shoot from the cut ends. 

Making for a far nicer and thicker screen. 

Nicer green foliage with a silvery tint. 

Nice smell. 

100% better than a Leland cypress. 

 

[saveasteading]

1 hour ago, Russell griffiths said:

100% better than a Leland cypress

Interesting.

Sounds better than 100%.

[Drellingore]

18 hours ago, Roger440 said:

Sorry for thread hijack

No worries, I'm such a newbie that I can't add value to anyone's conversations, so if I inadvertently create a space for a chat that other people benefit from, that's a bonus

[markc]

On 23/11/2022 at 10:57, Drellingore said:

Ha, I know what it means in that context!

 

Getting back to SFW topics, I'd forgotten that I'd mentioned news. I was thinking there was some forestry organisation called the BBC or something!

There is the APF - Assos. Of Prof Foresters