It's hard to chop down that favourite old tree, but for National Tree Week, Jane Powers is going to get ruthless
National Tree Week, the 22nd such annual event starts tomorrow. And to honour the occasion, I'd like to suggest that everyone cuts down a tree today. That got your attention, didn't it? As it happens, I'm partly serious. The only thing more distressing than no tree in a garden is the wrong tree. They are all around us, and often in urban front gardens: dirty great conifers jammed up against the window, decrepit cherries long past their sell-by date, and inappropriately large trees with their limbs hacked off at the elbows so they don't grab at passing vehicles.
Now why would anyone want to keep such eyesores in front of their houses? Well, as the recent owner of one such less-than-lovely woody specimen, I'll tell you why. Because I paid good money for it, because it had been there for nearly 15 years (and surely one couldn't just go and cut it down after all that time?), and because it was a lot bigger than I am.
Oh yes, the three-pronged device of economy, sentiment and fear has kept many an ugly or uncongenial tree lumpenly occupying a piece of this good earth. But let me tell you this: getting rid of my badly-placed and sulky Sorbus (or rather, watching a kind executioner friend do the deed) was wonderfully liberating - as the self-help books might say.
I like the feeling of arboreal decluttering so much that I'm planning to chop down another tree in the next week or so. Now before the tree police arrive and penalise me by making me re-home six chestnut seedlings grown by local school children, let me state that I will be planting something more suitable in place of the soon-to-be ex-tree.
I'm all for trees, indeed I am. But, not just any old tree anywhere. I like to see the right trees in the right place.
One of the most difficult places to grow a tree satisfactorily is the urban front garden. Space is limited, buildings and walls are at risk from branches and roots, and overhead wires are a nuisance waiting to happen. The soil is often poor because it's tired, or because it was never any good in the first place. And if you live in an estate built in the past 20 or 30 years you may be lumbered with a frustrating mixture of soil and building detritus compacted by heavy machinery.
All of the above might make the faint-hearted urbanite think that a tree is destined for failure. Not so. We just need to proceed with some care and deliberation. Let's start with the soil. Although there is a school of thought that says trees do better if you don't amend the soil, I don't think this applies to the artificial and often challenging conditions in a town or city plot.
When planting, dig a hole a good bit larger than the root ball, and break up the subsoil in the bottom (to encourage the roots to travel down in search of water and anchorage). Put a bucket or more of well-rotted manure or garden compost in the hole and cover with some soil. Take your tree (which has been soaking in a bucket of water while you were digging) and carefully spread out its roots in the hole. The soil mark on the stem should be at ground level.
Fill in the rest of the hole with soil mixed with some more garden compost or well-rotted manure, and a little blood-fish-and-bone, or seaweed fertiliser. Push down the soil around the trunk with your foot, and make a shallow bowl-shaped indentation, to keep water from spilling away. Water the tree really well, to settle the soil around the roots.
Small trees don't need staking (except in windy areas), but larger ones may. Hammer the stake into the hole before you plant the tree (but after temporarily positioning it) so that you don't spike the roots. When the tree has been firmed into place, attach the stake to the trunk with a tree tie, no more than 50 or 60cm above ground level. Its purpose is to help stabilise the roots, not prop up the trunk.
But look what's just happened in the paragraphs above: we've planted a tree, and we haven't even got one yet. That's because planting is the easy part, whereas choosing the right tree may take some time - especially if space is restricted.
Don't be in a rush to buy a tree. Check out your garden's soil, climate and conditions and then do some research. Delve into the internet (www.rhs.org.uk and www.bbc.co.uk/gardening are good starting points), look at books (I like John Cushnie's Trees for the Garden) and ask for advice from a knowledgeable person in a garden centre.
If your garden is really tiny, you could have a miniature tree such as a Japanese maple or an olive (which may be pruned to keep it compact). A small tree that I dislike, but I'll mention in the spirit of fairness, is the stiff little weeping willow, Salix caprea 'Kilmarnock' - if you're going for the suburban doll's house look, seek no further. Far better, according to Brian Wood of Murphy and Wood in Cabinteely, is a standard wisteria, if you keep it pruned to a reasonable size.
If you have a little more room, the choice is greater (but please be mindful of crowding out or shadowing the neighbours' gardens). Rowan (Sorbus), crab apple (Malus) and cherry (Prunus) are traditional (and good) choices for front gardens . They are interesting throughout the year, and if you get a compact variety, they don't take up a lot of space - but look for a taller stem, so you can plant under the branches. Many cherries are not long-lived, and need to be consigned to the wood pile after about 50 years (fuel for your children). Two small cherries, which Brian Wood recommends, are P. mume 'Beni-chidori' and P. 'Okame'.
Some trees, such as hazel, dogwood and willow, may be coppiced (cut down to near the base) yearly or bi-annually, and grown, in effect, as large shrubs. Others - including eucalyptus, catalpa, Paulownia - may be pollarded (pruned back almost to the main stem), after which they produce large, cartoon-like leaves. The lovely, feathery-leaved Cootamundra wattle (Acacia baileyana) can be trimmed into a large lollipop: the purple-foliaged 'Purpurea' is especially delicious.
Urban trees are particularly valuable: they help to clean the air, they absorb CO2 and they provide shelter for wildlife. We really need them. However, I must divulge that new research has shown (rather disturbingly), that trees may in fact be adding to global warming, by producing methane. As a 12-year-old friend of mine remarked when he heard this: "Cool! Trees fart too." Indeed.
A compelling reason for getting rid of the clapped out old specimens in your garden and replacing them with something worthy of all that hot air. jpowers@irish-times.ie
National Tree Week: March 5th-11th. For details of events, contact the Tree Council of Ireland: 01-2849211; www.treecouncil.ie
LISTEN TO THE TREES
Next week The Quiet Corner slot (10.45am) on Máire Nic Gearailt's Lyric Notes programme (10am-12.30pm, week days on Lyric FM) features author, lecturer and environmentalist Dr John Feehan. Over the five days he will speak about his young four-acre oak wood, Clongawny bog in Offaly, and Nemeton - the sacred groves of pre-Christian Ireland.