Free Landscape Garden Designs Using Trees
When it comes to creating a landscape garden plan, the most difficult thing is often the starting point. The small garden designs below were designed using one specific vareitey of tree and then selecting companion plants that work nicely with and around it. Use the desigs "as is" or modify to fit your unique garden space.
IMPORTANT: Always be sure to check USDA Plant Hardiness Zones for each plant to make sure it will grow in your zone. If a plant will not grow in your zone ask your local nursery and garden center professional to recommend a comparable plant.
Click on a plant name below to view a garden design
Fragrant Tea Olive - Osmanthus fragrans
The Fragrant Tea Olive, Osmanthus fragrans, also known as the Sweet Olive, is a large evergreen shrub or small tree that produces an abundance of powerfully fragrant flowers in fall, spordaically through winter, and earl to mid-spring. The flowers are tiny but boy do they pack a punch! All it takes is one Tea Olive to fill the front or backyard with a heavenly scent of perfume.
USDA Hardiness Zones: 8a-10b / Sun Exposure: Full Sun or Part Shade
Ginkgo Tree - Ginkgo biloba
Ginkgo biloba is a remarkable tree known as a 'living fossil', as it is the sole survivor of an ancient group of trees that date back to beyond the time of the dinosaurs. Exceptionally hardy and easy to grow, the Ginkgo tree is capable of living several hundred years. Ginkgo is prized for its tall, distinguished upright habit and its very unusual, fan-shaped leaves that turn the brightest yellow of any tree in fall.
USDA Hardiness Zones: 3a-8b / Sun Exposure: Full to mostly sun is best
'Liberty' Holly - Ilex x 'Conty'
Another fine selection from the Southern Living Collection, without a doubt, the Liberty Holly is one of if not the most attractive of the evergreen tall hollies to ever come on the market. Liberty forms a dense, pyramidal, evergreen shrub with lustrous, dark green foliage. If Liberty Holly had no other characteristics these would be enough to recommend it. But of course, being a holly, in late fall the branches are smothered in bright scarlet berries that contrast strikingly with the deep green foliage. And, best of all, these berries persist into winter and boughs can be used for Christmas decorations.
USDA Hardiness Zones: 7a-9b / Sun Exposure: Full to Mostly Sun. 6 hours or more of direct sunlight is best.
'Double Feature' Crape Myrtle - Lagerstroemia indica 'Whit IX'
Double Feature® Crape Myrtle is a sterile hybrid that produces no seed capsules. As a result, from June to September, the plant has a constant flower show. So, Double Feature® is a classic in that if you liked the first flower show in late spring, just watch and Double Feature® will play it again and again all season long! It is a semi-dwarf crape myrtle, which means its smaller size will fit perfectly in smaller spaces. The parent plant, at age eight years was 5 ½ feet tall and 5 ½ feet in diameter as a dense perfect ball, yet the plant had never been pruned. Mature height is anticipated to be about eight feet, which will allow for a limbing up to form a small tree.
USDA Hardiness Zones: 6a-9b / Sun Exposure: Full to Mostly Sun. 6 hours or more of direct sunlight is best.
Dwarf Alberta Spruce - Picea glauca 'Conica'
The dwarf Alberta spruce is a very attractive coniferous evergreen tree that has many uses in the landscape. It's slow growth and conical shape is especially nice when used in containers. Whether left in their natural conical shape or trained into topiary forms these diminutive evergreens are an easy way to add a formal accent to your landscape. Lots of folks decorate them during the holiday season as a small indoor or outdoor Christmas tree. Dwarf Alberta spruce grows slowly to 5 to 8 feet in height with a spread of 18 to 36 inches.
USDA Hardiness Zones: 2a-8b / Sun Exposure: Full Sun to Part Shade. 6 hours or more of direct sunlight is best with some shade in the afternoon in the South.
