Choosing the Right Tree For Your Yard

Certified Arborists Serving Ventura & Los Angeles Counties

News & Advice From the Leading Thousand Oaks Tree Trimming Company

We’re enjoying some mid-winter rain right at the moment in the Conejo Valley, but before you know it the time will be right to start spring planting.

If your landscaping plans include planting a tree or two, you’ll want to review these tips for choosing the right tree for your yard.

Thousand Oaks Tree Trimmers

Trees offer everything from a nice shady spot to enjoy a summer afternoon to a nice increase in your home’s value. But not all trees are equally well-suited for every yard or every climate. That’s why it’s important to keep two things in mind when selecting a tree — the right species for your area and placement of the tree within your yard.

Deciduous trees are wonderful for providing shade in the summer, and then allowing heat from the sun to reach a house when they lose their leaves in the winter. But is heat from the sun during winter really important to you here in sunny Southern California? You might consider it a priority, or not have strong feelings either way, but it’s a question worth asking.

Evergreen trees, on the other hand, with their dense, persistent foliage can provide excellent wind protection — nice when the Santa Ana winds blow! — and they can provide a screen for privacy.

Tree Shape

A top priority in tree selection involves matching the tree’s shape to its functionality. Making the right selection here can really reduce your tree maintenance costs and increase the tree’s value to your home. There area countless ways a tree can perform a valuable function. Here are a few to get you thinking about the role you want a new tree to play in your yard:

  • Blocking the view of overhead lines: choose a low spreading tree
  • Providing privacy: choose a row of tall columnar trees
  • As an arbor over a driveway: Choose a large vase-shaped tree

Your Yard’s Conditions

Another key to selecting the right tree is choosing a species that will thrive here in the Conejo. But there’s to it that just selecting a tree that’s right for our hardiness zone. (The Conejo Valley is in hardiness zone 10a, so when you’re tree shopping be sure to check which zones the tree you’re looking at is right for.) In addition, keep in mind the following considerations:

  • Soil conditions
  • Exposure to both sun and wind
  • Your yard’s drainage
  • Space constraints
  • Outdoor activity you’ll enjoy around the tree
  • Susceptibility to insects and diseases

Tree Quality Characteristics

After you’ve narrowed down your choices, it’s time to go shopping! When you drop by a local nursery to actually select your tree, check out the specific trees by looking for the following attributes indicative of a healthy tree:

  • A strong form with well-spaced, firmly attached branches
  • A trunk without wounds or other damages
  • A quality root system — which is vital to support healthy growth

Be on the lookout for:

  • Multiple stems originating from the same point
  • Branches that grow into each other
  • An undersized root ball or container that might result in limited, crushed or circling roots

When you’ve chosen a good healthy tree that’s right for our climate and your yard, then it’s time plant it and have the pleasure of watching it mature into a thing of beauty!