What Is a Tree Garden?

A tree garden is simply a garden adorned with trees to give it more substance, color, and character. If you select the right species, you can create a beautiful tree garden that elevates the natural space you have. Tree gardens are also known as arboretums. They are mainly grown for botanical, communal, or aesthetic reasons in cities.

Trees are not just the lungs of our planet. They can also add more beauty and variety to a garden.

Why are trees and forests important?

Trees are important because they convert carbon into oxygen. This process of photosynthesis creates a natural balance in the environment and regulates the climate. Without trees and forests, we would soon run out of breathable air. Furthermore, trees and forests sustain important ecosystems that sustain wildlife. They also protect and rejuvenate the soil beneath us. Trees and forests are also vital to prevent extreme climate change behaviors. By keeping carbon out of the atmosphere, they regulate the climate and keep greenhouse gases in check.¹

Although, it is worth emphasizing that more trees and forests cannot restrict climate change alone. We need a far wider range of solutions, including changing farming, agriculture, industry, and even our consumption habits.

Should we plant more tree gardens?

We can do our part in protecting trees and forests by growing them where we can. Creating a lively tree garden would be one way. A garden with trees wouldn’t just look better, it could also be a habitat for birds and other organisms.²

We can also help conserve trees in our local area by advocating for them and planting more trees through conservation projects. In fact, all of us should get involved in planting more trees. If everyone around the world planted a tree, it would make an immense difference.³

Tree garden: Key facts

Trees, land, and nature are our best assets against extreme climate change and rising carbon emissions. ⁴

Yet, over the last 30 years, humans have destroyed around 420 million hectares of forests.⁵ That is nearly half of the total land area of the US. This is why we need more of us to plant trees. If everyone on earth planted a tree, that would be a good start. But, the world needs over a trillion more trees to substantially reduce the threat of climate change.⁶

By destroying forests, we emit carbon and lose the role they play in taking carbon out of the air.⁷

Deforestation is thus a key contributor to climate change. We can all play a part in fighting deforestation by planting trees in our gardens and elsewhere.

1. IUCN. (2018). Forests and climate change. [online] Available at: https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/forests-and-climate-change.
2. BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine (2019). Top 10 plants for birds. [online] BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine. Available at: https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/top-10-plants-for-birds/.
3. www.bbc.co.uk. (n.d.). What if everyone in the world planted a tree? – BBC Ideas. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/what-if-everyone-in-the-world-planted-a-tree/p084ttpq.
4. Goldstein, A., Turner, W.R., Spawn… (2020). Protecting irrecoverable carbon in Earth’s ecosystems. A Nature Climate Change, 10(4), pp.287 – 295.
5. fao.org (2018). SOFO 2018 – The State of the World’s Forests 2018. [online] www.fao.org. Available at: http://www.fao.org/state-of-forests/en/.
6. www.bbc.co.uk. (n.d.). What if everyone in the world planted a tree? – BBC Ideas. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/what-if-everyone-in-the-world-planted-a-tree/p084ttpq.
7. fao.org (2018). SOFO 2018 – The State of the World’s Forests 2018. [online] www.fao.org. Available at: http://www.fao.org/state-of-forests/en/.