Lawns love trees. Unlike dwarf specimens that only contribute to chromatic enhancements, large trees add color, design and texture to a landscape. But trees alone won’t do. The tall trunk, the heavy branches, the dense canopy too need a little dressing up. Luckily, there are some easy ways of doing that, and you don’t need to have the skills of a prodigal landscaper for it. Anyone can do it, and once finished, your garden will be the envy of the neighborhood. If you feel its too much work then you can seek help from a professional.
Want to keep it really simple? There’s a way to dress up trees without going through too much trouble. That involves bricks and rocks. It’d be great to have a yard cart at hand for the moving, but a couple of extra hands would do too. Make a border around the trees using large rocks or bricks, whichever you prefer. For a commercial edging finish, keep the rocks small to medium. A round border looks good but feel free to get creative. As long as there is a distance of 10 inches between the border and the trunk, any style could work.
Here is another very simple trick of dressing up trees in yards. Pick a variety of flowering groundcover and make a flowerbed around the trunk. Vinca vine, periwinkle, Bugleweed, Canadian Anemone, creeping thyme, there are so many options to choose from. Once the flowerbed is installed, the plants start blooming soon after. Easy-care and heavy-duty, these low-growing plants fill up the grounds they cover with glossy green foliage and vibrant pastel blooms. They make quite a sight.
To take ground cover idea to the next level, go for mixed flowerbeds. You do not have to pick different species of plants for this because that would complicate the care routine. Instead, pick one plant, but to keep the variety going, mix up the flower colors. So, if your choice of plant is begonia, pick white, red and pink ones for one tree or a mass of periwinkles for another. The similarity of habit, height and foliage texture will give the bed a more cohesive look. The color scheme will keep it visually interesting and exciting.
There is a large mass of people out there who love ferns. If you are one of them, then there is a very easy way to stage up the trees in your lawn with your favorite undergrowth. A quick tip is to favor multi-stem trees for this dressing. Ferns look heavenly with them. There are few things so overwhelmingly refreshing than the sight of fresh fern growths around a multi-stem tree. Its instant color and texture. In fall, they turn color and ramp up the visuals even further.
A very smart way to dress up your trees while caring for them is mulching. Mulch supplies garden vegetation with essential nutrients. So, they make an indispensable part of the care routine. But mulch can also double as landscape enhancement if done the right way. Pick your favorite kind of mulch and it could be anything from wood chips to pine straws and cover the ground around the trees with it. This will tidy up the surroundings while keeping the trees well-nourished. You can top it up by arbitrarily placing some rocks or sporadically planting some low-growing plants on the mulch bed if you like.
There are few pleasures in life that compare to the joy of gardening. So right on and let your creativity take over.