What is the Best Tree to Plant in Your Garden?
Trees of course are vital to our environment, put simply, they promote life, but, the best tree to plant in your garden will depend on a variety of factors. Planting a tree is a symbol of hope and belief in the future. Mundane as it may seem compared to solar panels and hybrid cars, planting trees is one of the most effective and affordable ways to make a personal difference for the environment. If you’ve made a decision to plant a tree in your garden, the first question you’ll probably be asking is what is the best tree to plant in your garden? There are so many choices! Before making one, ask yourself the following question:
“How much space do I have?”
You may well love the look of a glorious oak but if your plot is the size of a pocket handkerchief, your little sapling will eventually become an unwelcome intruder. It’s well worth investigating a tree’s eventual height and spread prior to making your purchase.
The best tree to plant in a small garden
The best tree to plant in your garden if space is limited requires another question to consider: What function do you want it to perform? There are many species, for example crab apples, maples and cherries that even the smallest of gardens will accommodate. It will have to work hard to justify its space and must be chosen carefully.
The following are my favourite trees for small gardens suitable for southern areas of the UK
Japanese Cherry (Prunus) There are many varieties of flowering cherry trees and many are a great choice for smaller gardens – they cast only light shade, don’t get hugely tall and have beautiful blossom attractive to bees! 
Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum) are slow-growing so suitable for container growing and perfect for a small garden. They need a sheltered spot and a little shade.
Amelanchier lamarckii (juneberry) is small tree with an attractive, open habit. It’s a good choice for a small garden because it has two seasons of interest. The bronze-tinged young leaves turn orange and red in autumn and in late spring it is covered in attractive white. The berries are very attractive to birds.
Dogwood (Cornus kousa) is a lovely small tree in early summer it bears masses of tiny flowers but it is grown for its conspicuous white bracts which are just gorgeous! When autumn arrives, the foliage turns a vibrant shade of crimson along with strawberry-like pink fruits.
Espalier fruit trees if you’d like to grow fruit but think you didn’t have the space, why not grow some espalier fruit trees? Espaliers are grown on dwarfing root stocks that have their lateral branches trained horizontally, encouraging them to grow outward rather than upward. This means they take up hardly any room – perfect for smaller gardens.
Fig tree – a ripe fig is a thing of great beauty. To grow figs successfully outdoors in the UK, it’s important to choose a hardy cultivar and plant it against a sunny wall. To make sure it doesn’t get too big plant in a bucket in the ground. In colder areas figs require winter protection but will grow well in containers – ideal where space is limited. You can leave them the summer outdoors and are overwintered in a cool, frost-free place.
Crab apples (Malus sylvestris) is a perfect tree for a small garden. In spring, they produce clouds of blossom, very attractive to pollinators and in autumn the fruits and foliage provide rich autumnal colour and food for birds. 
Rowan (Sorbus) An excellent choice for a small garden as a specimen tree is the cultivar ‘Joseph’s Rock’ which reaches about 4m in 20 years.
Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) is a wonderful choice for a small garden and one of the most wildlife-friendly trees you can grow. Native to the UK, it’s a caterpillar food plant for a number of moths, bees visit the flowers in spring and birds love the berries in autumn. There are plenty of cultivars to choose from.
Arbutus unedo (the strawberry tree) bears delicate flowers and brightly coloured red fruits that look like strawberries in the autumn.
The Best Tree to Plant in Your Garden for Purpose.
You should also give consideration to the function that you want the tree to perform. If you are overlooked, you may want a tree to give you some screening from neighbouring windows so something evergreen, that retains its leaves all year round, might work best for you. Once the preserve of grand estates, pleached trees, which are trained into various shapes and sizes have become a modern style statement and a great way to give instant screening without taking up too much space. Hornbeam lends itself to pleaching very well, but as the popularity for ‘hedges on sticks’ increases so the supply of various varieties, including evergreen species, has increased.
If you want a productive tree for your garden consider planting a fruit; Apple, Damson, Plum, Cherry, or Pears are all relatively easy to grow and give two seasons of interest, with lovely blossom in spring. Growing your own fruit is hugely rewarding as well as tasty. These trees can be trained as an espaliers or fan-shapes against a fence or wall, if space is at a premium. Or, for a really small space, try growing a step-over apple. As the name suggests, the step-over is a low-growing, horizontally-trained tree that can literally be ‘stepped over’. Step-overs can be planted along an edge of a path or a bed, and make an excellent divider on an allotment or fruit garden.
A carefully chosen tree can make a fantastic focal point and there are some stunning ornamental varieties to choose from. Even if you only have a small garden, it’s possible to find a suitable tree to fill a little space.