Planting trees, shrubs, or bushes is a great way to beautify a yard, but it is important to plan and choose carefully for maximum effect.
When purchasing trees, shrubs, or berry bushes, make sure they thrive in our Zone 3 climate. Shrubs and most trees need at least five hours of sunlight a day.
Most urban lots are too small for large trees, so choose smaller trees, such as columnar aspen, crab apple, hawthorn, or mountain ash. Another option is to buy dwarf trees. Place your trees where you can see them from inside the house. Don’t place them close to your windows.
Choose shrubs for their foliage as well as their flowers. Some, such as the cotoneaster make excellent hedges. Others such as lilac, spirea, ninebark, or potentilla are grown for both leaves and flowers. Others, such as dogwood and berry bushes, help to feed birds.
Fruit trees not only provide you with tasty organic food, but their blossoms in spring are beautiful. First, check with your local market garden as to what varieties produce the best fruit and how long before they produce a good crop. Choose semi-dwarf or dwarf trees. Short trees make for easier picking, and apple, crabapple, Pembina plum, and Evans cherry are excellent Zone 3 fruit trees.
Berry bushes flower in the spring, fruit in the summer, and beautify the fall with the reds and yellows of their leaves. All make tasty jams, jellies, or pancake syrup. While all berry bushes produce best in a sunny location, they tolerate partial shade.
Blueberries need two varieties in close proximity to successfully pollinate. They need an acidic soil, pH up to 5.5, and may take up to eight years to reach full production.
Chokecherry is native to Canada. After a mass of white flowers, it fruits into a pitted sour berry that puckers the inside of your mouth.
Highbush cranberry has attractive leaves, clusters of white flowers, bright red clusters of berries, and beautiful red leaves in the fall. The bush is a cross- pollinating plant and therefore needs another variety close by.
Currants grow over a metre in height (four to five feet). They do not like hot dry soil, so make sure they get enough water.
Haskaps produce oddly shaped berries that are high in antioxidants. Plant in fertile, well-drained soil. Two compatible varieties are needed for cross-pollination.
Pin cherry is a large bush or a small tree native to Canada. In the spring it is filled with a mass of white blossoms that set into a bright red berry.
Raspberries prefer a slightly acidic soil. When buying canes, check to see if the canes are summer- or fall-bearing.
Saskatoons are tall and can reach five metres (16 feet) or more in height.
When planting a tree, shrub, or bush, dig a hole twice as wide as the root ball and set it at the same height it was originally grown; set the thicker part of the stem just above the ground level. Fill the hole with the excavated dirt. To help develop the roots, add a cup of bone meal to the soil placed around the roots. For trees, don’t add compost, as the roots may not spread properly, preferring the richer soil. Bushes have a more compact root structure so you can add compost to the hole. Once transplanted, water every 10 days for two to three years until it is well-established.
Charles Schroder is a St. Albert resident and an avid gardener.
