Small Trees for Small Spaces
When you are used to seeing everything “super-sized” from french fries to televisions to sport utility vehicles, sometimes it is hard to imagine that there are some things actually getting smaller. Gone are the days when homes have half-acre front yards. No longer do we have the wide sea of green grass that links the lawns of every neighbor on the street. Over the past twenty years, our front yards have been on a continuous “down sizing” trend, giving up most of the precious space to larger home footprints and back yards. With this smaller front yard we should in turn see a trend in plant palates that work well in small spaces - plants that have a mature size that does not outgrow the width of the lot. Instead we see the same large plants being forced into tiny spaces.
When trees with 40 foot or greater canopies at maturity, like Indian Laurel Fig (Ficus nitida) or a Chilean mesquite (Prosopis chilensis), are planted in tiny front or narrow side yards, the pruning necessary to keep the trees a manageable size is overwhelming. Not only is it a tremendous amount of work for the homeowner, the pruned branches represent a great water loss and the majority of green waste ends up taking space in our landfill. Over-pruned trees are not only aesthetically unappealing, they are more susceptible to sunburn and disease.
It is deceiving to see trees in their petite 5- or 15-gallon containers at the nurseries. It can be discouraging when new landscapes are installed and a magnifying glass seems required to see the plants present. Do not be fooled! Low water use plants grow quickly when given the proper amount of water. They will fill in within a year, and if overplanted will cause many headaches in the long run.
Try some of these low water use trees that are adapted to small spaces:
Anacacho Orchid Tree (Bauhinia lunarioides)
8 x 6 feet at maturity, shrublike
Full sun/Partial shade
Leaves are shaped like butterflies, delicate white or pink flower clusters in the spring
No thorns
Great patio tree
Cascalote (Caesalpinia cacalaco)
15 x15 feet at maturity
Full sun
Young trees are very thorny
Stunning yellow winter flowers followed by colorful red seed pods
Low litter
Feather Tree (Lysiloma microphylla v. thornberi)
15x15 feet at maturity
Full sun/Partial sun
No thorns
Sensitive to the cold
Beneficial to native wildlife
Small white puffball flowers from May to June (flat seed pods follow bloom)
Kidneywood (Eysenhardtia orthocarpa)
15 x 10 feet at maturity
Full sun//Partial shade
No thorns
Sonoran Desert native
Fragrant white flowers smell like vanilla and attract butterflies
Mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus) (need picture of Pistacia lentiscus)
Photographer: Toni Moore
15 x 20 feet at maturity
Full sun
No thorns
Evergreen tree with stiff, dark green leaves that turn red in the fall
Low litter
Palo Blanco (Acacia willardiana)
20 x 10 feet at maturity
Full sun/Reflected heat
No thorns
Attractive white peeling bark
Perhaps the best small tree for planting close to structures
Low litter
Sweet Acacia (Acacia farnesiana)
20 x 20 feet at maturity
Full sun
Thorny
Sweet-scented flowers lend nice winter color
Beneficial to native wildlife
Texas Ebony (Pithecellobium flexicaule recently reclassified as Ebenopsis Ebano)
20 x 15 feet at maturity
Full sun, accepts some shade
Dark green leaf color all year
Thorny
Beneficial to native wildlife
Kathleen Moore
Water Conservation Coordinator
City of Chandler