Trees baring all in winter

All the leaves have fallen now, and we should have cleared them from the lawns and paths. This is important, as if they are left on the lawns they cause the grass to become yellow, and eventually to die.

If left on the paths they get slippery, and people may fall.

The old way was to rake the leaves off. This was quite satisfying, and a good way to get warm. They could be raked straight onto the borders if they had been cleaned first.

Then the leaves make a nice, cosy blanket over the border, and by spring it will have sunk into the soil to nourish the plants that are cosy underneath.

However, if there are perennial weeds under there they will have grown, and be difficult to get out in the spring.

The moral to this is that all the borders should be cleaned before the leaves fall.

The new way is to use a blower. It can just blow the leaves onto the borders, or it can suck them up into a bag to be put straight onto the compost heap ready to dig into the borders next year.

There may be room for the planting of a new tree. Some trees are especially designed for winter, with marvellous bark effects.

A small tree for this is the Acer griseum. It has ginger coloured bark that curls and really stands out in the winter landscape, catching the sun in its twisted feathers.

Do not let anybody pull it off, as then it is not quite so effective. This tree also has lovely autumn colour, with orange, red and ginger in the leaves, and pretty little helicopter seeds that hang on to the twigs for a long time.

Then there are the Snake bark maples, another form of acer, which, when the leaves have fallen reveal patterns like the skin of a snake.

There is the white and green of Acer tegmentosum, or the red and white stripes of the Acer davidii forests variety. Most of these are quite big trees in the end, so do make sure that you have enough room to let them grow.

The well known tree grown for its bark is the Himalayan birch, Betula utilis. This has white bark, which is worth scrubbing every now and then, to get the greenish lichen off. It gets a bit bigger than our native Silver birch, which is a pretty tree.

This one looks good if planted in a group of three, or, if you are short of space, get a multistemmed tree, with three trunks, and plant it with small bulbs, crocus or snowdrops around it.

The winter reveals all sorts of things that are not seen in the summer, the shapes of trees become more obvious, and a winter walk can be quite delightful.

By Pat Edwards