What type of tree?

Hi all am interested in planting a tree in the garden that is fast growing. i have two kids and would love to build them a tree house say within the next 5 years so they could really enjoy it whilst they are still young. so am really looking for some recommendations, if there are any trees that could grow to a big enough size within that time.... many thanks 0)

 

Sorry, I cannot think of a single tree that within 5 years of planting would be big enough and strong enough to bear the weight of a tree house and 2 children.
I suspect by the time a tree is big enough your children will have left home.

Maybe you need a new home and garden with a large tree to start with, to build them your dream tree house.

Or take them to Alnwick for a visit, where they have a huge tree house.

http://www.google.co.uk/images?q=alnwick%20tree%20house&rls=p,com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7SUNA_en-GB&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1242&bih=529

More ideas here....

http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=e...=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1242&bih=529

 

Do they want a tree house?

The easiest solution is to buy a play house and put it up on a platform.

Our daughter has had this done, it's six feet up in the air, on four 4" X 3" posts, with a ladder to access it and a slide for her three kids to use to get down if they wish.
It has a 2ft platform on the door side with safety rails round it.

They can get their bikes and all sorts of equipment underneath.

 

That sounds like a better idea:thumb: then you could maybe plant some trees around it to make it a bit more tree house like?:wink:

 

Yes, she's used that rustic screening on two sides (the back's against the side fence) so it looks a bit like it's in a "wood."

 

Thanks for all the replies, like the idea of planting trees round a bought one. thing is i like the old worn in look to tree houses and didnt really want the straight out of the shop look but i guess it will have to do :thumb:.

i guss i should mybe just start now so i can at least build the grand kids one.... Thanks again all 0)

 

You know, I don't think 'children' ever grow out of tree houses! Get a beatiful tree planted anyway, then if it isn't ready for the kids to make their own during their teens, it'll be about right for the grandchildren!

...Meanwhile, cut yourself some nice long willow rods late February, stick them in the ground in a circle, leaving a small doorway - tie into a wigwam structure. Use a few willow rods to weave around and the den will have rooted and produced side shoots and leaves in it's first year. All you have to do is occasionally weave the side shoots into the den and give the den a clip a couple of times a year if you want.

 

You can buy a treehouse, or "nail one together" if you want something more like what you would have built in the tree itself? Getting some old telegraph poles is probably straightforward / cheap, and could be used to make a raised platform. My parents made me one when I was a kid (dunno why, now I look back on it, we had plenty of trees, but I expect that the concept of building a smart treehouse hadn't taken off WAY back then).

Its going to take a long time for a tree to grow ... 10 years? and it still won't be big enough to "own" the tree house, by which time I expect the kids will be getting to the stage of outgrowing it.

In order to have a tree-in-your-new-"tree"-house I would plant something fast, but possible inappropriate to build a treehouse "in". A treehouse tree needs lower branches to clamber up, but fast growing trees don't really make those sorts of branches. So I think if it were me I would a fast trees such as Willow or similar, Cricket Bat willow perhaps? or a Poplar? something with a bit of a canopy - not an exclamation-point tree like Lombardy Poplar though.

 

thanks again

 

Anything over 9 foot IIRC