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Landscaping - choosing trees


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'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. 

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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.    

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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.

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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 :)

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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.

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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

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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. 

 

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

Ha, I know what it means in that context! :D

 

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

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