Whether it is for contrast or to blend in, for colour, height similarity or difference- trees are selected for unique and differing reasons for our many projects. Here we give a short guide on how we like to group different trees together in the landscape.
The selection of trees for a site or specific client will greatly be determined by the purpose of the tree, climatic conditions they need to be subjected to and the effect they will eventually create in the landscape.
The main purpose of trees would be to create the back bone of the garden in the form shade trees, screening trees and even as a focal feature.
We have been involved in many challenging projects over the years and finding the right combination of trees, suitable for each site and objective, is essential.
There are no rules or limits to what can be combined thus you can mix deciduous / evergreen and indigenous / exotic. One of our successful projects made use of stepping and layering of trees on different levels.
We worked on 3 different levels with 3 different layers:
Lower layer: selected mainly for colour using Liquidambar styraciflua with its showy autumn colour pallet.
Upper layer: The overarching shade canopy (12m tall), allowing vista through sculptural stem architecture of the Celtis africana.
The final outcome resulted in an effective screen with a variety of colour, texture and architectural shapes.
