Gardening Advice
Growing Conifers
Conifers are an ideal and versatile way of adding structure, colour and interest to your garden year-round. Here’s our three main characteristics to think about when choosing the right variety of conifer for your outdoor space:
Shape and Size – are you looking for your conifers to grow tall for privacy or are you looking to keep them more compact within pots/borders?
Rate of Growth – are you looking for your conifers to grow quickly and cover a large area within a couple of years, or to plant a variety which is low maintenance, with little growth and trimming required?
Foliage Colour – choose from a large variety of evergreen foliage colours, including: red’s and oranges, to green’s and blue’s, the list goes on.
Here are our top 6 reasons to grow conifers in your garden:
1. Environment benefit
We all understand that trees play a vital role in benefiting the environment, by absorbing harmful CO2 in the atmosphere. Did you know Conifers provide the same beneficial factors, just on a smaller less intrusive scale! Throughout a conifers lifecycle, depending on the variety, they actually lock up enough CO2 from the atmosphere that after 1- 2 years each conifer becomes carbon neutral.
2. Year-round interest
Conifers provide amazing visual interest throughout the seasons including the winter period, with stunning evergreen foliage colours ranging from blues, greens, coppers, rich reds and more, along with the textural interest they provide.
3. Adds structure
If you are looking to add a structural element to your garden or create a privacy screen on the perimeter of your property, conifers are a great way of achieving this. Why not try hedge planting as an alternative to fencing? This way you gain privacy and the conifers will adsorb a lot the noise pollution.
4. Minimal effort to grow
Conifers are an ideal plant for anyone looking for a low maintenance addition in their garden. If you are looking at planting a fast-growing variety, this will need occasional trimming (once per year) to keep under control.
In terms of feeding and watering, many conifers will thrive without additional feeding and only require watering within the first two years of planting, however if you wish to promote growth you can add a granular feed in late winter. If you are growing your conifers in containers this will require a liquid feed from early Spring until summer.
5. Versatile plants to suit every garden
Small, large, wide, tall, sparse or full, conifers come in all shapes and sizes to suit every garden space. The most common ways to grow conifers are in containers, as hedging, groundcover, or a stand-alone feature/focal point in your garden.
Find out the best ways to plant by visiting the RHS guides HERE
6. Wildlife friendly
Conifers are a rich environment for a lot of wildlife to thrive. Many animals such as: birds, hedgehogs, toads, butterflies, squirrels, and spiders benefit from Conifers in your garden as a source of food, shelter and nesting. It’s important you are careful to avoid disturbing any wildlife when maintaining your conifers.
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