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Planting a field maple in a small garden

FireFire Posts: 19,096
in Problem solving
The Wildlife Trust (UK) have given out some free trees. People in our community garden group have received field maple saplings. It seems like a pretty big tree (eg pic below) , not well suited to a small garden a five square metres. I advised probably not happy in a pot or anywhere near a house...  I would think more suited to a field boundary or very large garden. Would you say?


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Posts

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    I've got them in our field boundary and i  think they're too big there
    Devon.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited July 2020
    They can grow into very big trees indeed ... good in parkland or field boundaries ... not for most gardens 😳

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Thanks. Just checking.
  • K67K67 Posts: 2,506
    Could try your hand at bonsai.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    The person who received the tree is a newbie to gardening. WT shouldn't be sending out daft trees on a punt.
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    Acer campestre has been specified for the front garden planting on my estate by the arboriculturalist. The houses are set back less than 6m from the back of the pavement in most cases. They're a good hedging plant though so pruning to keep small is a viable option. I snuck in a rowan instead and I'm training it as more of a large bush than a tree. Other people have put on Japanese acers instead.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    WE, a lot of work to keep it down, though I would have thought. I have three beech trees as hedging (inherited) and it's a regular job to keep them in check in a tiny front garden. Leave them for six months and they would have swallowed the house. Not what you would call low maintenance. I'm sitting on a pyracantha, a holly tree and three beech trees all planted in a 2x3m space, trying to stop them becoming 20 ft tall.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    @pansyface - is it an interesting tree? I can't image it "does" very much - unlike a crab apple, as a small garden tree...
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    Squirrels like the seeds


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    No
    In London. Keen but lazy.
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