Putting Trees to Work

A little planning and a modest budget can yield trees that lower your energy costs and give you more privacy.

What is the Value of a Tree?

Joyce Kilmer famously wrote, "only God can make a tree." But homeowners with some smart planning and even just a modest investment can reap many practical benefits from the result of that labor.

Beyond their beauty and air-scrubbing benefits, trees can provide energy savings by shielding houses from sun and wind. And a group of trees and bushes used as a fence is more pleasing to the eye than a fence.

Large shade trees are an iconic part of the idealized American yard, and for good reason. Before air-conditioners, it was a tree that gave people respite from summer temperatures.

Now, as energy costs rise and more people worry about global warming, homeowners are turning to trees again. They are planting deciduous trees on the southern side of their homes for their cooling ability.

And in winter, with their leaves gone, the trees let in what meager southern sunlight there is.

Roger Cook, our landscape contractor, says that some seek large shade trees for how the trees frame their homes.

With the big houses that are being built now, people want a tree that can give a house scale and make it look like that house has been there a long time.

Cook suggests planting a long-living sugar maple, Katsura, or even a newer species like Princeton Elm, which has proved relatively resistant to disease.

Just make sure to plant it far enough from the house-20 to 30 feet away-so the branches don't hang over the roof, potentially causing damage or giving squirrels, ants, or other wildlife easy access into your home.

Also, position the tree so that it doesn't starve your lawn of too much light. Plant groundcover beneath the bulk of the leaves.

More suburban homeowners are opting for trees in lieu of fences to provide privacy from a road or a neighbor's property. "We do that every day," says John Lee, a landscape contractor in Bedford, New York.

Evergreens, which do not lose their needles in the winter, provide the best screening. But "you want to avoid a straight line of trees," says Cook, "otherwise it looks like 10 little Indians in a row."

Cook and Lee suggest grouping the trees irregularly, mixing heights and textures to give the appearance of a natural grove.

How you go about planting your living fence depends on your budget and time frame. You can plant saplings and watch them grow over the years, bring in a contractor with heavy equipment to plant 20-foot trees, or every option in between.

Realistically assess how much space you have.

"Very often we plant trees, and they are nice and pretty when they are six and seven feet tall," says Cook, "but when they get 30 and 40 feet tall, they start eating up the yard." Norway spruces are a good example. They're popular at planting, and unpopular when they become intimidating.

He suggests dwarf and tighter-growing varieties of spruce and arborvitae; the narrow-growth pine, Pinus strobus fastigiata; Hollies; and Hinoki cypress.

If deer are a problem where you live, look for deer-resistant trees. Cook's favorites include Thuja plicata; the giant western arborvitae, which doesn't appeal to deer; as well as the Hinoki cypress.

Windbreaks made up of trees and shrubs planted between your house and the prevailing winds will reduce the amount of frigid air that hammers your home. Paul Wray of the Iowa State University Forestry Extension explains, "anytime you can reduce the velocity of the wind (hitting your home), you're going to save energy."

Wray says that a properly constructed windbreak can slice 10 to 25 percent from your energy spending. Windbreaks are less necessary in confined suburbs, where homes and trees already slow and redirect wind. But if you have a large property on relatively flat land, you might consider the esthetic, wildlife, and energy benefits of a windbreak.

Wray suggests planting more than one row in the windbreak, with evergreen trees augmented by low-lying deciduous shrubs that can fill the gaps created when conifers lose their lower branches. The shrub row can also prevent snow drift.

But windbreaks are not for everybody. You'll need the space to prevent the edge effects of wind whipping around the break and hitting your home. Wray suggests a windbreak of about 150 feet in length, planted at least 50 feet from the house, with 20 feet of spacing between trees, to allow them to grow.

While there are many benefits to adding trees to your yard, perhaps the biggest is the beauty that you will create in your life. As the seasons change, your plantings will provide you with an unending show of color and life that lasts for years, decades, and sometimes generations.

By John Metaxas
Courtsey of This Old House online