DIY Network

Planting Trees Planting Trees From "Weekend Landscaping" episode WKL-104

With the stone path and border in place, now it's time to position the trees.

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We've chosen Forest Pansy redbud (Cercis Canadensis 'Forest Pansy'). This variety provides a dramatic and striking contrast to the light-colored flagstones (figure A).

• Native to North America

• Unique; provides beauty for three seasons of the year

• Round, heart-shaped leaves, plum-red in summer; in fall, beautiful bright maroon (figure B)

• Named for the vivid violet spring-blooming flowers.

Planting a natural-looking grove helps define the path and adds vertical interest to the garden (figure C). This variety of tree is also good for the garden since its semitransparent structure doesn't overwhelm the space and allows light to filter through to the underplantings below.

Figure A

Figure B

Figure C

Garden writer Nan Sterman recommends some other suitable flowering trees for a southwestern climate:

• Tipu (semievergreen)

• Floss silk tree (ornamental)

• Jacaranda (lavender-purple blooms)

• Palo verde (green trunk, yellow flowers and very drought-toleranat).

Now it's time to place creeping junipers around the edges of the path (figure D). The featured variety is the Blue Rug juniper (Juniperus Horizontalis 'Wiltonii') (figure E).

Figure D

Figure E

• Lowest-growing of all the junipers--will reach only about 6" tall but can spread as far as 8'

• Keep most plantings low to maintain an open feel throughout the garden

• Provides plenty of visual interest with a variety of shapes, colors and textures.

• Has striking, silver-blue foliage

• Excellent groundcover; will eventually form a dense mat along the ground

• Heat-, wind- and salt-tolerant, ideal for rock gardens or places where soil erosion can be a problem

• Hardy but brittle; must be handled with care when planting; lower branches can break easily

• Will provide excellent definition for the edge of the stones after a snowfall.

Figure F

To add color contrast to the border with foliage, Golden Nugget Japanese barberry (Berberis Thunbergii 'Monlers') is selected (figure F). Its golden-color foliage has a slight orange cast, and it grows to be about 12" tall. The contrast ensures that the garden will have a strong color dynamic even when few plants are blooming.

According to Nan Sterman, "A lawn tends to be very uniform and green. When you use a planted pathway, you have a whole myriad of choices to choose from. You can choose different kinds of hardscape in different colors and textures: brick, slate, flagstone. In my garden I have pathways of broken concrete. Add to that plants of different colors and textures, and you have a huge palette to choose from; it's much more interesting than having a lawn."

Time elapsed: 9.5 hrs.