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The house we moved into a couple of years ago had 4 huge trees in a very small garden. Lovely trees but very much planted in the wrong space!
Regrettably we've had to have them removed to prevent damage to ours and neighbours property.
We'd like to replace them with new trees more suitable for a semi-detached house garden but don't really know where to start. So over to STW! 🙂
In a similar situation we have a little apricot tree which I'm hopeful won't get too massive as it grows (it's very early days yet).
https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/types/trees/smaller-gardens worth a look.
Silver birch and/or Acer would work
A lot of fruit trees can come in small varieties. Cherries, apples and plums etc.
Not sure I would describe a silver birch as a small tree.
We have some Japanese Maples in big pots - they are about 2m high and wide.
We also have some super dwarfing plums, bought from Appletreeman in Perthshire which get to about 3m high.
Ornamental cherry. Flowers in spring and red leaves in autumn.
Shallow roots, happy to be pruned pretty hard and you can get small varieties. Silver birch are fine in a smaller garden
Acers and lovely
If you go to a garden centre labels on the trees will give you their mature height and spread - ornamental cherries come in a range of sizes and look great with their blossom in spring. We’ve put in some fast-growing trees that reaches 4 metres but only a metre wide that help give us some privacy and shape. There are also that dwarf conifers that don’t get too big.
I’d never put in a silver birch in a small garden - our neighbour had one that seeded in her garden against our fence it was just 6ft tall - 20 years later it completely obscured her back garden and the small seeds get everywhere,
I was going to say paper bark acer, and I see its on the list linked above ^
Can grow in even the worst climates, like where I live 😉
Silver birch are fantastic trees, there are weeping varieties, tall and thin and beautiful multi-stemmed varieties such as Himalayan/Kashmir. Also there are some mountain ash and similar that are grafted onto different root stock so they grow slowly and thin. Hawthorn with red blossoms, get yourself up to Glapwell or Shirebrook garden centres!
Apple
Eucalyptus (gum tree) are good. A friend gave me one in a big pot and survived well until I went away and it dried out. It's growing back now. Still in the pot
Crab apple. Gorgeous blossom in the spring, small fruit which the birds will love in Autumn. If you go to purchase this kind of tree now, the apples are out and you’ll get to see the different colours.
We have:
Some variety of Acer / Sycamore, needs pollarding very few years to keep it in check but otherwise just does it's thing (it grows back a dense crop of ~2m branches in a season so you barely notice it's gone).
Apple trees, most varieties intended for domestic gardens are grafted to a smaller root to keep them small.
Medlar, looks cool in a "a kid must have drawn this perfectly upright trunk with a complete spherical head of big round leaves" kind of way. The fruit is pointless whatever the cookbook says, it's birch syrup, basically tasteless.
Sumach, grows quickly, nice leaves, if you get one that flowers they're these funky looking upright cones in spring, a long season with green leaves which turn a spectacular shade of red later on. The only downside is it spreads. Not (AFAIK) in a destroying your houses foundations kind of of way, or a piercing your feet kind of bamboo way, but you will have tens of them popping up in the lawn which stick out because they grow much faster than the grass in summer.
We had but it was a PITA:
Leylandi, just no
Plum, it was fine, then it was a PITA to keep alive, then it died. I think they need a nice spot out in the open where you can rake up all the windfall to keep disease at bay.
Laurel, I didn't mind it. Tolerated being pruned as hard as you liked even down to the stump, great for privacy. OH decided she didn't like it, so I had to put my back out trying to remove the stump.
Any tree will grow to it's surroundings. Sycamore (vermin of the tree world) and Eucolyptus are quite fast growing so best avoided. Pots are an option but the trees will become pot bound and will need root reduction and top pruning to balance, similar techniques to the bonsai process.
For open ground planting, Japanese maple are quite sedate in growth and will reward you with spectacular Autumn foliage. As someone mentioned above, dwarf fruit cultivars are very common these days.
The silver birch at the front of my house is 4-5 metres at a guess.
We had to take a dead Beech down recently, I may put a Cherry there in it's place.
Acer, 100%. They even grow nicely in big pots.
We have a few, they look absolutely beautiful currently.
Amenlanchier - nice form, nice flowers, good autumn colours.
Had similar here. When we moved in there was a big apple tree very close to the house and it was already propped to stop it falling into the house. I tried to save it via reduction, but eventually it had to go. So replaced it with 4 trees in a better position that isn't going to bother any buildings. 1 cooking apple tree, 2 eating apple trees and 1 fruiting cherry. The apples have taken well, but the cherry hasn't so will replace it with another apple or pear I think, or risk another cherry, but add a lot more grit to the soil to improve drainage. Have a chat with your local tree nursery to see what they recommend for your soil etc.
Re the rootstock that the fruit trees are grafted onto, they will determine the eventual size so you can pick a rootstock to suit the size of tree you want. https://www.rhs.org.uk/fruit/fruit-trees/rootstocks
Dig one up from a new build estate!
At the smaller end, consider evergreen shrubs for a bit of colour in the middle of winter. Fatsia Japonica is quite architectural and bomb proof, whilst pricer and more anonymous is Daphne "Jacqueline Postil" but rewards with tremendous scent late-winter.
Kashmir Rowan is what I would suggest. Dainty pink flowers in Spring, white berries in the Autumn and colourful leaves then too. I have one that is getting on for 20 years old but is no more than 10ft high.
Those with acers, would they be suitable for a pretty big raised bed? Just put one in along the boundary, so only a meter wide, but several long, and 40cm tall on not great quality clay soil. Had a row of holly there before and the stuff keeps sprouting up everywhere...
Magnolia. Deciduous (some evergreen too). Beautiful flowers in Spring that have a scent. Buy a smaller variety (4m. max)
Camellia shrub. Evergreen, flowers, best not to prune, 2.5m to 4m max.
Both can need a splash of feed depending on soil, but nothing too onerous
Thanks all - we'll do a bit of googling over the weekend and see what we like the look of.
[insert thumbs-up emoji]
Those with acers, would they be suitable for a pretty big raised bed?
This is our Acer which is 24 years old - we actually dug it up from our old house and moved it here 22 years ago.
It's in a raised bed if sorts with a number of other stuff and seems very happy.
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Hawthorn is a good shout. Good for wildlife and very good for hedging.
We have planted various dwarf growing varieties such as Japanese apricot and cherry which gives nice leaf & flower colours.
Growing in pots will keep things smaller as already said - even dwarf varieties will grow to quite a size given space.
We only plant Koelreuteria Paniculata now.
And another... Pyrus salicifolia 'Pendula' weeping willow-leaved pear, which always reminds me of an olive tree (squinting, from a distance 🙂 )
I m putting cordylines in, cordyline australis, or the cabbage patch palm. Likes bit of sun and rain and you can keep pruning it back as it does grow. Red ones die here in nw England, green ones thrive.
I've out in an Amelanchier Lemarkii in the back along with a winter flowering cherry Prunus Shibhirtella. Love them both - similar in principle but different timings. The cherry will end up bigger too. Either could work for you or similar.
Also think of others with attractive bark - Prunus Serrula, Betula Jacquemontii, etc.
Apple trees, most varieties intended for domestic gardens are grafted to a smaller root to keep them small.
I planted one of those. It grew to about 6 metres and the roots cracked the drain.
Acers and lovely
They are. So lovely that some utter bastard robbed ours whilst we were on holiday. Annoyed and slightly impressed as it was about 1.5 metres and in a really heavy pot. We'd had it from it being tiny. Need to get another one or two
We've got a smoke tree that is really nice. Lovely purple leaves all year. Fills the corner of the garden without being huge.
How about a fruiting cherry as opposed to a flowering cherry? They don't grow as tall but if you're lucky you might get edible cherries.
Apple trees, you’ll need at least two, see if you can find an old variety that’s local to your area. Or crab apples. Colourful at this time of year.
Silver birch or rowan if you want something not fruity.
I'd suggest always go fruit. If you don't want it then donate it.
Apples pick and stew for pies and crumble through winter.
we have a smoke tree in the garden its lovely but it most defintiely looses its leaves in winter as i have to rake them all up. in fact the first ones have started to fall in this wind.
i cut it back hard most januarys to keep it in check, still probably 5m x 5m
kids love climbing up it
Fruit trees you can get grafted to a dwarf stock to help keep compact.
There is also a great selection of ornamental acers that have compact form and colour.
All will need you to keep on top of pruning so they don't go beyond what you want, but neither will a few years neglect result in a 12m tree.
Apple trees, you’ll need at least two
Lots of self fertile ones available now e.g. https://www.victoriananursery.co.uk/Self-Fertile-Apple-Trees/