Love Your Weekend star Alan Titchmarsh has some invaluable tips for those of us with smaller gardens who still yearn for a tree to give us shade when summer eventually arrives
Alan has a handy tip for a small garden(Image: Dave Benett, Dave Benett/Getty Images for Killik & Co)
Every garden should have at least one tree, says Alan Titchmarsh, but planting one is a lifetime commitment, with the expert insisting you have to get it right from day one.
Choosing the perfect tree – especially for smaller gardens, can be tricky. Alan has singled out one strong contender for those of us working with the smaller gardens we tend to see in towns and cities.
“If you’ve got a smallish garden,” he says on his Gardening with Alan Titchmarsh YouTube channel, “the best thing to do is to find a tree which will never eat you out of house and home.” His recommendation goes with a winter-flowering cherry, which will provide a splash of colour while the rest of your garden is asleep through the colder months.
And now could be the best time to plant it. When it comes to trees, Alan says: “You can plant at any time of year, but I still think it’s great to get tree planting done as soon as you possibly can before spring.”
If you plant a tree at this time of year, he explains: “it’s got time to settle in, get its roots growing, and grow away when the warmer weather comes.”
A winter-flowering cherry will bring colour to your garden in the darkest months(Image: Kayco via Getty Images)
“Winter is a great time to plant trees,” Alan adds. “Any time between November and March, particularly for bare root trees that have been dug up to be transplanted.”
One important detail, if you’re buying a part-grown tree from a garden centre, is not to plant it too deep. If your tree was delivered in a container, pay attention to how deep it had been planted and take care not to bury the roots any deeper than that.
While some people will insist that trees should only be planted in a square hole, Alan says the shape of the hole is immaterial: “Believe me, the roots of this tree can’t tell whether the hole is circular or square.
“Just dig a decent size hole that’s about 20 or 30 centimetres bigger all the way around than the root ball.”
Make sure the roots are not too dry when you do your planting(Image: PaulMaguire via Getty Images)
If the root ball seems a little on the dry side, it’s a good idea to give it a thorough soaking before planting. It will also help to “tease” the roots out a little, to encourage them to spread once the planting is done.
After that, he says, it’s simply a question of popping your winter-flowering cherry in the hole and filling in the rest, taking care not to damage the roots. Check as you go that your tree’s standing straight, and not leaning over at an angle.
If the spot you’ve chosen is liable to be a bit windy, it might be a good idea to add a stake to support the sapling as it gets established.
Straight away, Alan adds, you’ve got an eye-catching garden feature, with the TV presenter explaining: “They’re already peppered with flowers in the middle of January.
“The smaller cherries are really useful. And the winter flowering cherry, which will pop its little blooms out from tiny little buds through several weeks in the winter, give you a bit of winter interest.”
Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh is next on ITV this Sunday, February 8 from 9:30am – 11:30am
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