HOW DO YOU SELECT THE RIGHT TREE OR SHRUB FOR YOUR LANDSCAPE?

Abstract

People who regard the use of plants in the urban environment as an aesthetic nicety are not seeing the whole picture. It will be increasingly incumbent on professionals to recognize and quantify the many functions that plants play in order to justify the need for continued funding of the green urban environment in times of restricted budgets.

Where summer temperatures are very high, plants, especially trees provide shade and reduced air temperatures. Tree planting to reduce wind speeds has long been practiced around the world. Research shows that semi porous windscreens that may include trees and shrubs can have a profound wind reducing effect. A barrier of approximately 35% transparent material can create a long calm zone that can improve human comfort levels.