Owners of small gardens often wonder whether a beautiful house tree even fits on their property. In fact, if the area is small, it is better not to plant a forest tree, but there is room for low-growing and narrow small trees everywhere - even on the balcony or terrace.
Which small trees are suitable for small gardens?
Trees that remain small for small gardens include ornamental and wild fruit trees, columnar trees, ball trees and umbrella-shaped trees. They offer lush floral displays, beautiful foliage color and fit well into narrow spaces without affecting the other plants.
Selection criteria for the small house tree
Through its size and growth habit - the gardener calls this habitus - the house tree determines the overall appearance of your garden. In a small garden, trees should be planted as low as possible with final growth heights of up to eight to twelve meters. But it's not just the height of growth that plays a crucial role in the selection of varieties, the habit should also not be ignored: For example, a hornbeam is not suitable for small gardens because it grows very wide. Instead, you can plant a narrow columnar hornbeam, which really comes into its own when there is little space. Ball trees also grow rather weakly, remain compact and are particularly suitable for the front garden.
Criteria for choosing the small house tree at a glance:
- existing site and soil conditions
- expected final size / height
- Expected growth width when fully grown
- annual growth increase (slow growing / fast growing
- Growth habit (narrow, spreading, rounded, broadly bushy)
- Special features (flowers, fruits, leaf color and shape, evergreen)
The most beautiful varieties for the home garden
Even a small house tree should not be squeezed between the house, hedge or boundary wall and other plants. Give the piece of jewelry enough space so that it can fully develop its effect. Most trees are best placed as solitary plants or as the shining center of a border planting.
Ornamental and wild fruit trees
Most wild and ornamental fruit trees remain comparatively small and offer numerous advantages:
- The trees display lush white or pink flowers in spring
- In summer, solitary trees provide shade, many are bird protection trees.
- Red-leaved varieties score points with their variety of colors even in summer.
- In autumn, the tree's magnificent foliage color sets the scene.
- Apples, small cherries and plums also ripen.
- These are often edible, but also feed birds and other wildlife.
Columnar Trees
Columnar trees have a very slender shape and require little space, although some varieties can grow quite tall. There are both coniferous and deciduous trees in columnar shapes, and some fruit trees have even been bred to have a particularly narrow growth habit. These are not trees that have been trimmed, but rather special varieties. These retain their characteristic growth habit even without cutting measures.
Ball trees
Spherical trees are often so-called top grafts, whose trunk grows very slowly or no longer at all. The spherical crown also remains compact as it gets older, so that the tree only casts little shade and can therefore be easily planted under. Many ball trees do not grow taller than three to four meters.
Umbrella-shaped trees
Umbrella-shaped trees, which develop a broadly spreading crown and therefore look best in larger green areas, require significantly more space. They are ideal for providing shade in summer or for placing the house bench underneath.
Overhanging trees
Well-known trees with overhanging branches are the weeping willow, weeping birch or the bower elm. These grow very large and therefore need a lot of space in the garden. However, there are also hanging trees that remain significantly smaller and therefore fit well in small gardens or even in a pot. A nice example of this is the hanging wild pear 'Pendula' (Pyrus salicifolia), which grows to a maximum height of six meters and up to four meters wide.
Tip
So-called dwarf trees, which can often be recognized by the suffix 'Nana', are also very suitable for small gardens.