Have you considered having deciduous trees around your property? Let’s answer some commonly asked questions about deciduous trees.
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Don’t they just drop a heap of leaves that have to be cleaned up? Yes, but most trees drop leaves. Other trees drop them all year round, while deciduous trees drop them all in a fairly short period. Leaves make excellent mulch for your garden. You can either put them straight on your garden beds or compost them.
Don’t they look a bit boring in winter without their leaves? To some people maybe, but if you look carefully, the trunks and branches can have a beauty of their own. The golden ash has lovely golden branches, silver birch have ghostly white trunks, young white cedars have shiny black bark and crepe myrtles have an interesting motley bark. Every species has different branching characteristics and if you take the time, you can learn to identify them even without their foliage or flowers.
Aren’t they exotic species, shouldn’t we be planting natives? There are some arguably good reasons why we should continue to use the traditional and modern varieties of deciduous plants available. As much as it is a great idea in theory to replenish our native vegetation, lost in ever consuming developments, two considerations against it are:
- Attracting native wildlife – in a perfect world this would be desirable however the sad reality is that we are all too often attracting them to their detriment, either killed by domestic pets or run over crossing suburban roads. Certainly in appropriate sites the native option should be explored.
- Fuel for fire – many of our natives are high in oils, which can be quite combustible in extreme conditions.
Benefits of deciduous include:
- Insulation – the age old reason for deciduous trees and vines is the solar passive protection of the foliage on our structures in summer and then allowing the sun in winter to provide heat radiation. This, if used effectively, can have significant impacts on reducing energy bills by minimising the temperature extremes.
- Fire protection – many deciduous trees (for example liquid amber and ash) have been found to be fire retardants.
If you have been swayed to give deciduous trees a go, now is an ideal time to buy and plant them, local nurseries will be well-stocked and you’ll be spoilt for choice.
Diary: Kitchen Gardening short course, Wodonga TAFE, four half day sessions in October. Topics include companion planting, composting, recycling and pest management, $250, 1300 MY TAFE (1300 698 233).
