A Guide to Choosing the Best Tree For Your Yard: Factors to Consider

Trees form the “bones” of the garden. They’re the first considerations to work with when creating a landscape design – starting with the largest, whether new or existing, and working our way down to detailed plantings. Trees impact the arrangement the most in size, light affectations, and framework.  As the largest plants in a collection, they carry the most visual weight in addition to their hefty canopies and root systems. 

Trees offer big rewards ecologically, ornamentally, and even economically. Choosing these landscape anchors is a long-term commitment. With so many variations in form and features, we’ve got a few ways to narrow down the best tree options for your yard.

Plan For Maturity

The main factor in selecting trees is ensuring enough room for their mature growth. Planning for maturity means accounting for limb expanse, height, and root systems. It sounds obvious, but we sometimes overlook or underestimate their full size to meet short-term aesthetics. Ideally, our trees will live a long time and reach their maximum height and spread. We don’t want to squeeze them into a spot now only to remove them down the road.

Size

The right situation to accommodate tree size makes all the difference regarding future maintenance. Will limbs encroach on the house, roof, or other structures like power lines? Is there enough room for root development without compromising the foundation, walkways, or tree health?

Using size as a parameter helps guide our choices toward tall, mid, or small specimens. While trees benefit from pruning as they age, they won’t need it to regularly manage size with the right tree in the right spot.

Consider Scale and Proportion

Trees, whether large or small in stature, have a bearing on the balance of the landscape. As the most sizeable and lasting landscape contributors, they also yield the most structure and visual heft. Among the tallest features of the planting arrangement, their size and form draw the eye. Their visual weight plays into scale and proportion: how we experience a place, its readability, and overall pleasing aesthetic. It’s the essence of curb appeal, where the home blends seamlessly into the landscape through a connected built and natural environment. 

Proportion is how all of the elements of a space relate to each other in size. Plant material and garden structures should be considered relative to the size of the house and the area to plant. A proportionate garden feels harmonious and balanced. 

If you’re working with a large site, consider adding bigger trees to punctuate the space with vertical interest. Think of an alle, a bosque, a small grouping, or a single large tree to dominate the space. Intimate spaces allow us to relish the details, where small specimen trees become focal points (taking care not to overcrowd the area).

The scale of your house and yard will determine whether to go with a single tree, a grouping of understory trees like dogwoods, or rows to line your drive. Your selection goes back to the home’s guiding proportions. Opt for small to mid-sized, multi-trunk specimens like Japanese maple, sweet bay magnolia, or serviceberry to anchor foundation plantings for scaled variation near the house. Give plenty of space between the home and the tree (six feet or so, depending on the variety).

Decide The Best Role

To choose the best trees for your yard, consider their roles. Maybe you’re looking for shade, fall color, flowers, a focal point, or all of the above.

Deciduous trees offer leafy canopies that provide cooling shade in summer. They help reduce air conditioning usage (and costs) in summer. In winter, they allow the warming sun to shine through bare branches and warm the home or patio. 

Evergreens provide year-round privacy, screening, and windbreaks. Fruit and nut producers enhance the edible landscape and provide forage for birds and wildlife. Flowering and fragrant selections bring color and heighten seasonal interest.

Form

Shade trees and evergreens have dramatically different forms, both equally valuable. Trees become architecture in the landscape, from vase-shaped to multitrunked to pyramidal.

If you’d like to screen a view or block an unsightly feature, a dense evergreen may be the choice. Sturdy evergreens also help block winds throughout the year, whether as singular large specimens or a series of conifers. Shade trees offer broad coverage to shade a patio, frame the front of the house, or cool the streetscape.

Multiseason Appeal

Multiseason interest is a fun one to plan for as you install new selections. We know trees shine in spring and summer, and choosing for fall and winter characteristics adds lasting interest. Deciduous species delight with leaf shapes and colors that transition to autumnal tones. Their bare trunks, branches, buds, and seeds add winter interest. Shapely conifers do the heavy lifting in cold weather with structural branching, dynamic foliage, cones, and berries.

Features

Factoring in a species’ natural attributes helps gauge placement and maintenance, too. Nut producers like hickories, buckeyes, and walnuts are best away from active zones like play areas, walkways, and driveways to avoid those heavy massing (and dropping) seasons.

Fruit-bearers are beautiful and functional additions. If you live in a wildlife-prone area, they may require an early harvest to avoid overripe attractants (or leave enough to share). Some fruits, like pears and apples, benefit from regular pruning for best shape and vigor.

Deciduous species drop their leaves in autumn’s cool temperatures, leading to an excellent source of soil nutrition through leaf mulch and mold. Removing thick layers from turf and putting them to good use in garden beds is a beneficial fall task.

Lighting Changes

While trees produce shade, their scale also affects the way light moves through a site. This benefit of casting a shadow alters the light beneath them and the amount of light nearby plants receive. Observe how light moves through your yard and take this into account when planning future beds. 

Existing plants may adapt to partial shade or may need transplanting as a new tree grows and creates shadier conditions.  

Growing Requirements

Matching the tree to the site is essential in setting up a healthy foundation. Make sure the selection is hardy in your USDA growing zone. Take lighting observations into account to know whether the site is full sun or partially shaded by structures or other trees, and match the tree to the exposure.

New trees need water as they establish. Once they have a robust root system, they’re usually self-sufficient. There are water lovers (like willow, cypress, or tupelo) for moist zones, and many drought-tolerant species (mesquite, cedar, juniper) well-suited to areas without supplemental irrigation.

Like all plants, the leafy growers have different soil preferences, many thriving in organically rich, humusy loams while others prefer sand and even tolerate clay. Knowing your soil type with a soil test helps determine any amendment needs. Fall is ideal for amending soils before the spring growing season.

Natives and Cultivars

Native species are well-adapted to their local growing environment, including soil types and climate. They flourish in localized average conditions without a lot of extra resources (water, fertilizer). They grow in partnership with surrounding plant communities and provide wildlife and pollinator resources.

Their cultivars sometimes offer improvements in habit, vigor, and showy attributes like flowers and foliage.

Shortlist of Favorites

Here are a few top performers with hardy stock, good landscape performance, and a striking appearance. Divided by size from large to smaller specimens, we’ve noted whether they’re evergreen or deciduous and special characteristics like seasonal color and winter interest.

Large Scale

Small to Mid-Size