Let’s continue our discussion about Apple trees and remind you that the first part you can find by clicking on this link: Old Apple Trees Through the Eyes of a Landscape Designer (Part 1).
Apple orchard in the suburban landscape
If this is an old orchard, it makes sense to beat it from the inside, placing a place of rest under its crowns. And if it is a single tree, it is possible to beat its background, if necessary to give any tamping from below and to find the optimum point for admiring all created, but already from outside. And in the first, and in the second case there are some subtleties.
If we are inside the garden, we can not appreciate the shape of the crown, but especially clearly see the location of the branches, the texture of the bark. So, it is the trunks that we must emphasize.
It is necessary to be more careful about the plantings under the Apple tree. They can completely drown out all the beauty of the trunks and leave only the Apple “roof”. Large shrubs that you want to limit and make a more comfortable place to rest in the garden, put behind the trunks-so that they become the background, not in front of them, otherwise they will close them.
What’s big? Well, if you sit in the garden, the largest for you will have everything that is above 1.2 – 1.5 meters. But small shrubs and perennials can just be planted in front of the trunk against the background of previously planted large shrubs.
Look closely at the trunks of their Apple trees: they are light or dark, what texture they have — and depending on this pick up the types of shrubs for the background. The limiting factor in the choice of plants for Apple trees will be only a shadow. No other factors (dryness — as under birches, acidic environment — as under pines, and so on) are decisive here. And we have plenty of shadow cultures. However, be prepared for the fact that the harvest will be more difficult to collect, and falling fruits and all can damage too fragile plants.
We have to reckon with the fact that such gardens, we inherited – it is often an ordinary planting of trees. How to “break” these rows? The matter is that we feel them only on one sign – on the points of contact of a trunk and the earth located in a row. On crowns, being in a garden, we do not notice it as we do not see them. On trunks as a result of their curvature – too. But the points…
Even from the school course of geometry it is known that two points on the plane set a straight line, and if there are several such points in a row, the straight line is simply striking. To visually break it, we must weaken the action of some points. This can be done if different tree trunks fill in different trees.
So, if some tree remains, as it was, open on the lawn, and the other will be lined with perennials or low shrubs, then the second point of connection of the trunk and the base will be automatically raised compared to the first, so the line will be destroyed. Similarly, you can do with other points, playing with the height of the lining and its color scheme. As a result, the straightness of the series simply ceases to be perceived.
Single Apple tree: what to do and what not to do
Its subtleties are in the design of an adult-with its unusually beautiful structure-Apple tree, which we admire from the side.
And here everything plays a role: the shape of the crown, the twisting of the trunks, and the pattern of branches. Taken together, all these features do not work as each of them separately. Violation of perception of one of them can reduce all impression to no.
Try an experiment: take the image of a beautiful spreading Apple tree and a white sheet of paper just cover the bottom of the trunk to at least half. You will clearly see how the effect of the plant will change, and not for the better. The same thing will happen if the role of “sheet of paper” will perform some Bush, which you for good reasons decide to “knock out” his Apple tree.
If you have such a desire-plant low plants that do not cover the trunk. And if high, then include them in the overall composition, but away from the trunk.
Pay attention to the shape of the crown planted in the tamping plants. It is always a bit strange when under an adult Apple tree with a spreading, almost umbrella form of the crown is planted vertical — for example, coniferous-plant. The vertical in General is difficult to imagine the subordinate zone. On the contrary – it is quite logical. The first case, in my opinion, is possible only when we do not see the whole crown of the Apple tree, and admire only the picture below it. For example, this situation occurs in the case that we have analyzed before — that is, when we are in the orchard.
When they leave…
Inevitably, there comes a time when these Apple trees begin to die. I know people whose orchards or individual Apple trees have not been fruitful for a long time. But they do not raise a hand to cut them. And not because they are extremely beautiful, but largely because it is a memory. The memory of my parents, my grandparents, my own childhood… but you never know what.
These Apple trees have witnessed family events, admire them, along with them happy and sad spring autumn. And now, so go and shut it off? After all, it is not just wood.
Those who still for some reason have to say goodbye to the old garden, I advise you to leave at least one tree. And you will see what metamorphoses will happen to him. It’s like a mystic, but it will take on the energy of all the outgoing trees, concentrate it on itself. Will be the core of the garden, to which you will come more than once, regretting the cut down trees. And it will treat you.
Once, of course, its death dies and it. Alas, like many other plants, Apple planting on the stump is not restored. It would be so – we would, without waiting, rigidly cut it long before fading, rejuvenating thereby and extending the term of her life, and with him and his. But alas.
However, sometimes it makes sense to keep even a snag from a dead tree. The wood of an Apple tree does not rot for a long time, it is very strong (it is known to all who at least once sawed an Apple tree, cherry in the garden…). It particularly stand for a long time, if it is clear from the bark. But playing with such a snag, so be careful. It should not become a dissonance. Still, it is a dead tree, and therefore-the contrast to all nascent and already living in your garden. And this contrast is not always appropriate.
For example, if it is an Apple trunk, bent on the ground and framing planting perennials, with germinating ferns between them and crawling under it ground cover – it looks quite natural. But bare, stripped of bark, the trunks sticking up cropped top with a crown, wreathed with a kind of vine-annuals – a very controversial decision. Probably, in this case, the trunk should be decorated so that the feeling of a dead tree goes away, and not emphasized, as is the case in the example.
If left on the trunks to let the perennial woody vines that, growing up, starting to sniff each other and eventually drooping umbrella – it will be a more interesting option. You can also add distractions, such as a bird feeder or hanging lantern in the style of the site.
Old Apple trees can help in creating a garden of any style, not only such a classic “country”, which was mentioned above. As an element of garden design, old trees are neutral. It all depends on what you do with them. As accessories may appear and chains, and ropes, and wicker vines. Even the props under the fruit-Laden branches can be solved very differently and become a real work of art.