Many gardening enthusiasts are explicitly looking for a beautiful, vigorous tree that requires little to no work. We will briefly introduce you to the most beautiful, easy-care and robust tree species in the following article.
Which tree is easy to care for in the garden?
Easy-care trees for the garden include conifers such as European yew, dwarf arborvitae and common juniper, as well as deciduous trees such as cornelian cherry, common hazel and Japanese cherry. These trees require little pruning and care.
Conifers require little work
Basically, conifers require the least effort: they do not need to be cut, do not produce fruit, do not shed leaves in autumn (which then have to be laboriously removed, especially if the leaves fall on public land such as sidewalks) and As a rule, they do not require any regular maintenance measures such as watering and fertilizing. There are species that can grow very tall and wide and are therefore only suitable for very large gardens. Others have a narrow or low growth habit and therefore also fit into small front gardens. For example, the following are well suited for the home garden:
- For rather large gardens: Colorado fir (Abies concolor), Caucasus fir (Abies nordmanniana), Blue Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica 'Glauca'), various species of spruce (Picea) and pine (Pinus), for example the Siskiyou spruce (Picea breweriana) and the blue girl pine (Pinus parviflora 'Glauca'), European yew (Taxus baccata)
- For rather small gardens and front gardens: dwarf balsam fir (Abies balsamea 'Nana'), dwarf cork fir (Abies lasiocarpa 'Compacta'), Arizona cypress (Cupressus arizonica), dwarf arborvitae (Microbiota decussata)
- For hedges and mixed plantings: Lawson's cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana), Hinoki cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa), Chinese juniper (Juniperus chinensis), common juniper (Juniperus communis) and other juniper species, European yew (Taxus baccata), Western tree of life (Thuja occidentalis)
Easy-care deciduous trees for the garden
Even among the deciduous trees, especially the species native to us, there are many easy-care and robust varieties for the garden. However, you must note that many of these trees can produce a lot of “dirt” due to flowering, fruit and leaf fall. This particularly applies to linden trees (Tilia), maples (Acer), chestnuts (Aesculus) and beeches (Fagus).
- For rather large gardens: the species mentioned above, oaks (Quercus). Black locust/ acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia), ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), alder (Alnus), birch (Betula), common hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)
- For smaller gardens: Common boxwood (Buxus sempervirens), Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas), Common hazel (Corylus avellana), Multi-flowered apple (Malus floribunda), Japanese cherry (Prunus serrulata)
Tip
When it comes to fruit trees, cherry and apple trees in particular are considered easy to care for. However, like all types of fruit, these require regular and expert pruning, otherwise the hoped-for yield will not be achieved.
