Why wouldn't you want a tree in your garden?

Some time ago, at the start of the summer, when the local supermarket had some small trees for sale in the front the shop (chosen to be suitable for small town gardens), I witnessed an exchange between an older couple (probably husband and wife). He, obviously very interested in the trees, was trying to get his partner to have a look. She, obviously not interested, said to him "I don't want a tree in my garden!" It was puzzling me, and as I was walking home, I kept thinking "why wouldn't you want a tree in the garden?"

I remembered his episode again when our new tree arrived last week.

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to our quince tree, because it just got too large for our small garden (no, we didn't do our research very well 😞). 

Still, it will provide very welcome logs for our son's wood stove.  

We love trees, there is eight of them in our small patch, various shapes and sizes, some in pots, some in the ground. 

This new one is Amelanchier "Robin Hill". It has various common names, I like "June Berry" the best of all. It has pretty flowers in the spring, berries in the summer and wonderful autumn colour.

We planted it in a newly made bed; the rest of it will be planted out in the spring, with a selection of perennials.   

 You might remember that when we moved to this house 5 years ago, the garden was very "flat", filled up with a model railway and lots of small walls; no trees, no birds.

The battle for the garden began .

Around seven hundred bricks and two skip fulls of concrete came out of here.

Fast forward to 2018 - late summer in our garden..

The birds love it, so do the butterflies and the bees; in the middle of the town.

All sorts of birds, many varieties, visit now, summer and winter.

Blue tits nest in the nest box DH put up for them. Various finches pass through here.

The crab apple tree is the most popular at the moment;

since the weather got colder, the blackbirds can't leave the apples alone,

the small birds (robin, wren) pick the soft bits which fall to the ground.

Blackbirds and starlings come to have a bath in the bird bath. 

Last week the wind brought lots of leaves down, and many fell in the bath. 

The blackbird was very displeased; we watched with some amusement how he set himself in the middle of the bath and picked the leaves one by one and flicked them over the side.

The job done, he had his bath 😀

There are doves coming onto the bird table; it started with a couple, now there is a whole flock of them.  

There is a constant movement in the garden.

I am not even going to mention the ecological importance of trees........

So, it is still puzzling me - why wouldn't you want a tree in your garden? 

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