Trees for a small lawn in front of house

Hi everyone,

I have a small lawn in front of my house, probably 20 feet long and 10 feet wide. It's a new build, and I just want to soften up the front a bit. I love silver birch and wondered if there's a small variety, that I could plant maybe 3 along this lawn in front of the house.
The trees would likely be 10 feet from the house, so want to plant trees that won't be a problem in a few years, and also something that is not going to completely block out any light, but just provide us with a bit of texture and nature at the front. Any recommendations that aren't going to cause us a problem, in 20 years!?
Thank you so much

 

Welcome to the Forum

I have a lovely Rowan aka Mountain Ash at the front of my house which is about 10' away from the house. It has lovely red berries in the summer for the birds, red foliage in the autumn and also was believed to keep bad spirits away.

It's currently 20ft tall though, so may be a bit too big for your garden perhaps? The foliage can be quite dense unless you thin out the branches to let more let through in the winter.

Another option would be a Corkscrew Hazel. It's quite compact. They produce catkins similar to birches in the late winter and the growth can be quite slow to begin with but again the foliage is quite dense in the summer months.

 

Rowans are lovely trees and if you have the space it would be a great choice.

If that may be a bit too big for you then there are lots of varieties of crabapple that don't get too big and all have fantastic flowers and laden with fruits in autumn.

For something even smaller take a look at euonymus alatus compactus which stays small and give a blaze of autumn colour-


Amelanchier are also well worth considering. Great flowers, attractive foliage and lots of berries for birds. They don't get too big and are easily kept to whatever size you want.

 

I have a small lawn at the front, I have just planted a Hamamelis in the middle of it. It will take a good few years to grow to anything significant. But it should give me fragrant flowers in winter and nice foliage colour in autumn.

Silver birches are beautiful - I have two full grown ones at the back. But they drop huge amounts of tiny twigs all year, and greater amounts in a storm, so if you are into tidiness you might want to reconsider.

 

It's quite a small area, I tend to think shrubs would be more appropriate rather than trees, three trees would be too much imo.

 

I've got an Euonymus alatus and it is never coloured up like that; probably the summers aren't sunny enough and autumns too mild down here.
So @Katie BB where are you gardening?

 

Some years ago I saw a property that had 3 silver birches (with exceptionally white bark) planted in a triangle with about 6ft between each tree.
The effect was stunning and it looked beautiful.
But that was in a big front garden about 50ft from the house which kept it in proportion.

In a small area such as you have I think the effect would be overpowering, and all you'd see from the house would be the trunks. It would also make it quite dark inside the house.

 

This morning's view out of my bedroom window! Though the camera does rather compress the perspective and exaggerate the effect. It's better than looking at all those house roofs, and it will be a lovely screen of bright green in a few weeks.

 

I'd also echo Pete and say that shrubs would be more suitable and not as dominating. Amelanchier can be more shrubby depending on the variety and they are nice and open, with wildlife benefits. Crabapples or other fruit trees can come on a choice of rootstock which determines how big the will grow. There are also plenty of nice magnolias that don't get very big and all those choices have a more tree look, if you don't want anything obviously shrubby.

I would check the soil before planning any planting as new builds are notorious for poor drainage and buried treasure. If you could also give us an idea of the aspect the garden faces that would be good as sunny spots or shady areas will determine how well things will do.

 

We've not had much autumn colour on anything for the last few years. It's always been so mild and then windy, that the plants defoliate without any display.

 

I planted an Amelanchier Obelisk a couple of years ago to block off part of the view into my neighbour's garden (or his view into mine ). It was about 6 feet tall when I planted it and is now about 8 feet. It's a slim tree which won't get too wide or tall for the space I have planted it in due to the narrow border and soil depth. You could possibly plant three of these in a row. The leaves are small and the canopy delicate with a flush of white flowers in spring. There are other small varieties which may suit.

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The other thing about silver birches is they produce a lot of sticky sap, so the grass underneath the canopy will get tacky. Also the roots can rise out of the ground, so the grass will no longer be flat and cutting it with a mower might damage the tree. This is especially likely if you don’t have good deep soil, which new builds tend to lack.