Planning Ornamental Landscapes
with Trees, Shrubs, and Vines
In this section, find how to plan landscapes with ornamental trees and shrubs, including:
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- Inspiration and ideas for tree and shrubs in home landscapes.
- The beauty, functional, and practical uses for trees and shrubs in home landscapes.
- A gallery showing home landscapes with featured trees and shrubs.
- How to best match locations at your site to specific tree and shrub species.
- How to choose planting locations for trees and shrubs
- Tools and equipment needed for planting trees and shrubs
Finding Inspiration and Ideas
Trees and shrubs are the foundations of a landscape and are the most visible and permanent elements of your yard’s plantings.
Large trees may take generations to grow tall and fully mature. By the time it reaches its mature size a sapling live oak likely will outlive the child that helped their parents plant it.
Here you’ll find inspiration to create the landscape you desire—whether for a colorful patio brimming with fragrant shrubs, or for a large and private, wooded backyard.
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As you look at various types of landscapes—shade gardens and sunny gardens, street-side front yards, private retreats or public spaces—the most intriguing landscapes will be those with appeal for all your senses.
Imagine hearing the sound of the breeze blowing in the leaves of a linden tree, smelling the scent of a gardenia, or enjoying views with the pink tinge of a cherry blossom. Senses combine to make landscapes both beautiful experiences to be savored.
About Trees, Shrubs, and Vines
Each tree, shrub, and vine has its own distinct features, habit, and benefits or uses in ornamental landscapes.
They are unique, from species known for garlands of flowers in spring to others with colorful autumn foliage and fruit. Foliage may provide lacy textures for some, intriguing bark for others.
Blooming trees and shrubs provide spectacular color, but there are other beauties to be found for those who look deeper into trees and shrubs.
Gardeners work with nature, supports, and pruning tools to make living architectural elements—hedges, vines, espaliers, and topiaries— that form patterns against a blank backdrop or grow in geometric forms or whimsical figures.
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On a grander scale, the simple accent of a specimen tree becomes a focal point of the entire yard. Those with even more space may plant corridors of trees to line a drive or fence lines.
At the other end of the spectrum, even small spaces such as patios and porches are more beautiful when you add shrubs and miniature or dwarf trees or vines in containers.
Above all, remember that landscaping with trees and shrubs is a creative adventure—an ever-evolving one with the changing seasons. As your plants grow and mature your yard’s appearance changes as well.
Planting landscape trees and shrubs is an act of faith, hope, and promise that you share with those around you and for the generations that follow.
Getting Started
An overview of trees and shrubs in home landscapes provides understanding and inspiration for landscape gardening options.
First, let’s look at how these major landscape plantings fulfill needs in typical homes. You’ll find a full description and example pictures for each category of plant and for the roles they fill.
Using Trees, Shrubs, and Vines in Landscapes
How trees and shrubs look in home landscapes depends on the plantings you choose and the purpose they fulfill [See: Using Trees and Shrubs in Landscapes].
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Here’s a gallery of some different roles that large ornamentals can play in yards and the many different choices of plantings available to provide those needs.
Matching Sites to Trees and Shrubs
With an understanding of how trees and shrubs work in landscapes and the major kinds of possible plants and trees, you’re probably asking, “What about my yard?”
The next section of this Planning is focused on matching your site to appropriate trees and shrubs that will look good and work best in your yard [ See: Matching Sites to Trees and Shrubs].
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We’ve given examples of typical considerations that nursery and landscape design professionals weigh when they begin to evaluate a home’s yard.
Selecting and Placing Trees and Shrubs
Along with garden type, site and climate considerations, there are some basic choices to make before you begin choosing ornamental trees and shrubs to plant [See: Selecting and Placing Trees and Shrubs].
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The two most important things to understand are how to recognize healthy planting stock and learning how much space each species will need in a few years when it has grown.
Here’s how to find information about both topics.
Tools, Materials, and Projects
What tools, equipment, materials and implements will you need to complete your landscaping project, and where should you begin.
While this site focuses primarily on trees and shrubs, here’s an overview of simple landscape features—raised beds, berms, and planters—and information on tools and equipment commonly needed to plant and care for trees and shrubs [See: Tools, Materials, and Projects].
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Before you plant trees and shrubs in your yard, you may wish to add permanent features to the area you will plant. Landscape designers and installers call these features “hardscape” construction, because they build them with soil, timbers, rock, and other non-living materials.
Learn more about these and other major choices by clicking on these links:
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