Tree Selection

Fall Gardening Tips

Pansies, snapdragons, stock, calendulas, and primroses can be planted now to replace summer annuals. Apples, pears, and other fruit trees can be planted in the fall from containers to get a head start on next spring. It’s time to divide overgrown perennials that bloomed in the spring or early summer. It’s also a good time to choose and plant some new varieties. Chrysanthemums are the brightest flowers for the fall garden—plant some now.

If you have dogwood, walnut, birches, and maple trees, now is a good time to prune them because they will bleed sap when pruned in early spring or late winter.

Selecting Trees for Your Property

Trees are the backbone of the garden. They provide shade and shelter and bring year-round beauty through their foliage, flowers, fruits, bark, and branch structure. Because trees take years to reach maturity, it’s worth taking the time to choose them carefully.

Considerations for Tree Selection

• Location and Space: Allow space for the full-grown tree, both above and below ground. Place trees away from underground utilities and avoid planting tall trees under overhead wires. Locate trees at least 5 feet away from curbs and walkways and 8–10 feet away from foundations.
• Purpose:
  • Shade Trees: Choose trees with a wide canopy, such as fruitless mulberry, Raywood ash, sycamore, red maples, Albizzia, flowering pear trees, or Chinese pistache.
  • Screening Trees: For blocking views, select tall, dense trees like redwoods and cypresses. Photinia trees work well for filling out fences.
  • Specimen Trees: For focal points, choose trees with interesting foliage or showy flowers, such as dogwoods, flowering cherries, flowering plums, crabapples, Japanese snowbell, or Japanese maples. These typically grow no more than 25 feet tall.
• Evergreen vs. Deciduous:
  • Deciduous Trees: Provide summer shade and allow winter sunlight. Examples include trees with bright fall foliage like liquidambars, maples, dogwoods, flowering pears, Chinese pistache, white birch, and ginkgo.
  • Evergreen Trees: Offer year-round screening and windbreaks but may shed leaves intermittently.

Fall is the best time to plant most trees. During fall and winter, trees establish their root systems, preparing for vigorous growth in the spring.