The best template for a planting plan in your landscape may just be as far away as the wild forests that surround the valley we live in.
Inspiration may just come from a stroll in the local woods. Our “wild” forests seem to have the best designers working for them, and the ones I use most often.
I would have to admit the most common problems I run into in the course of business would be, in no certain order, the same axioms I preach monthly in my columns. Yep, you probably know where I will go with this…
The wild forests have a plan from the moment each and every tree takes root, and for the most part, just works!
Do trees in the forest ever just simply run out of room? Meh, not very often…
Trees in the landscape however almost ALWAYS seem to be crowding one thing or another, be it another tree, concrete/asphalt, pipe, gutter overhead or underneath, powerline, view, eave, or roof, the list never ends.
A spatial problem never envisioned when the sap/seedling was introduced into a landscape, it is just hard to imagine how big a tree CAN get, or better yet how small a space WILL get over time.
Do trees run out of water in the forest?
In the form of drought, the answer is yes, but site specifically, I don’t recall ever seeing a wild tree outgrow its water source, so to speak.
From trees along permanent watercourses such as creeks, springs, rivers and the like, to baking savannahs the failure rate for a tree outgrowing its irrigation regime is pretty damn rare…
Are there trees in the forest that simply don’t belong there?
Subjective I guess, but again, whoever designed all the forests I find myself spending my free time in, have been batting a thousand. I can’t think of even ONE tree that was misplaced, due to faulty design…
I have seen some of the most kick-ass groups of “wild” trees growing together that would win every blue ribbon on Earth, if they were entered in the fair… By the same token, I experienced some planting plans in urban landscapes that the designer should be doing pushups in hell for the rest of time, for even thinking of…
Changes to cultural conditions in the wild can and do happen fairly often in the form of landslides and floods and such, but that is more of an “act of nature” rather than a calculated/planned event.
Urban trees however, fall more often victim to the whims of “development” in the guise of what is termed “improvement…”
Rarely, does ONE thing hurt or kill a tree in the wild, but the same cannot be said for an urban tree. Yes, given time ALL trees do the same thing, either croak and fall over, or fall over and croak. The natural forest designers seem to already have a contingency plan in place long before that ever happens, but silly us, it is always a surprise when it happens in the landscape!
Short of having a crystal ball, it can’t hurt to exercise your imagination before you ever even put a shovel into the soil. That said, enjoy the trees for making a beautiful summer…
Plant high and often…
