Planting Shrubs and Small Trees in a Sustainable Garden

Hi! I am Susan Harris and I am talking about the sustainable Gardening. In this clip, I am going to describe the sustainable gardeners' best friends, which are the group of plants called shrubs and small trees.

The reason I said that is that they are large enough to have a real impact. They can really fill up your garden. They create structure in the garden, a sense of enclosure and they make it look like a garden and feel like a garden. They are so important that it's often recommended that at least half of your space be taken up by shrubs and small trees. Many writers suggests two-thirds of your space and I would go farther and say, if you want, really low maintenance, fill up your total border with nothing but these shrubs and small trees.

They are especially low maintenance, if you let them grow to their natural size and their natural shape rather than shearing them into a natural perfect shapes that require a lot of clipping. They are also very easy on the budget, here is a shrub called Weigela that I just bought for $15. It doesn't look like much yet, but it grows very fast and before you know it, it will be this.

It just finish blooming, but you see, it's about 8?8 feet tall. Let me show you some other shrubs that are really filling out this border. In this case, a tree, this is a Deodar Cedar, there is the Viburnum, a large shrub, the familiar Dogwood, Pyrus and the blooming in front of them is a group of shrub roses that I just planted and they are going to fill out very fast and be a big colorful impact.

And then moving along you see the Azalea, Lespedeza and Spirea and just for remember to include a combination of plants that will drop their leaves and some evergreens. So that you have got something in your garden to see all Winter.

Next, I am going to cover the whole group of plants called Perennials and annuals.


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