Growing pine trees is practical but requires patience. To grow them successfully in your garden you need to choose a species adapted to the area you live in. Find useful information on where pine trees naturally grow and how they are beneficial if you can have them in your garden.
What Are Pine Trees?
A pine tree is not just any conifer but that which belongs to the genus Pinus of the family Pinaceae.
Pine trees are identified with distinct features of cones and garlands. Like other family members (cedar, fir, spruce, cypress), pines are evergreen. They have thin needle-like leaves. These leaves may be short or long. A single pine plant can have male and female cones at maturity. Females bear naked seeds that can self-propagate or with the help of birds, wind, or water.
The popularity of existence or growing them is significant. Characteristic cone-shape growing habits, thinner canopies to timber trading have a lot to offer.
Are Pine Trees Good For a Garden?
There are many different reasons why we grow pine trees in gardens. Trees are not only good for fencing but also define borders or garden screening.
1) Source of Mulch
Any gardener serious about growing vegetables needs to have mulching and groundcover sources. One of these sources is the pine needles. Besides them being a good weed growth suppressor, they help preserve soil moisture during dry spells.
Instead of going for grass clippings, try replacing them or using them as an alternative. They repel more destructive insects than mulch consisting of grass clippings.
2) Pine Needle Harvest
Many gardeners think that needles from pine and other crucifers as a waste. Harvesting the pine needles can be useful during the cold winter months. They catch fire easily which makes them an interesting source of fire starters.
A more exciting trick with night fires is the idea of bundling and waxing the pine needles. Just melt a good amount of wax. While still hot, pour over loosely tied pine needle bundles. It will burn for longer and without producing much smoke. For best night fire experiences use burning pans or bowl-shaped metallic tins.
3) Garden Privacy Screen
With its evergreen leaves come an advantage that a properly and tactically selected pine species. If you need to carry out your gardening chores with some privacy, then go for pine trees
When used as a screen option, pine trees remain ever quieter. And this gives you ample and serene working environment.
In addition to visual privacy, having a screen of trees can help keep down the noise from surrounding areas as well, or to help keep your neighbors from hearing as much of you.
4) A Natural Windbreak Option
Upright and compact pine trees can be grown on the edges of the boundaries and perfect windbreaks. Seen to be of many benefits, nearly all pine trees that belong to the conifers are evergreen or don lose foliage easily.
Even during the winter when they are likely to lose their foliage, their purpose is valid.
5) Control Cold & Hot Months
Protecting your home from cold winter wind can help keep your home warm during the colder months. If your furnace doesn’t have to work as hard, you’ll be saving money!
The same effect can be said for the hot summer sun. The trees help keep the heat from the house, which prevents your air conditioning system from working as hard.
6) Protecting Landscape’s Nature
Like most trees, pine trees can preserve many of your garden features from being altered or deformed. One of these ways is through soil erosion control. These trees grow deep roots that perfectly hold the soil together in wider spaces.
The other way of protecting your landscape is to minimize soil disturbance. This can best be achieved by growing dwarf pine tree varieties. Dwarf pine trees slow down the sweeping effect of strong winds that may cause damage to natural features such as defined garden edges and ornamentals.
7) DIY Air Freshening Spray
While some people detest varying pine scents, some admire and love the air freshening lively senses. It is still possible that the scents come with potential allergic effects due to environmental pollutants. Nevertheless, you can make your house fragrance-rich and possibly evade environmental pollutants. You just need a few ingredients to prepare it.
Below are DIY steps to make your pine-scented air fresheners.
- Boil ¼ liter of water
- When it bubbles add green pine leaves with a scent of your preference
- Allow them to boil for 25 seconds and remove the pine leaves
- Now let the hot water sit and cool
- Combine a few drops of pine essential oil with a 3 spoonfuls of citrus fruit-scented essential oil, OR
- Combine a few (10-20) drops of pine essential oil with 3 spoonfuls of lemon essential oil
- Add 5 drops of (grapefruit or strawberries or red berries) essential oil to each combination
- If you want to spray, carefully add a little food emulsifier to bring the mixture to effect
- Place in a small spray and then adjust the nozzle to have a finer mist-pray effect
- If you do not want to spray, place your mixture in a bowl
TIP: When you use a bowl instead, do not add an emulsifier or water
For best results place your bowl at calm spots in the house to let the fragrances diffuse and spread out.
8) Crafts and Hanging Baskets
When added to flower arrangements, pine cones, green pine leaf bundles add natural beauty to the sight. Pine cones alone can do well in decorating your dinner table. Pine leaves, woody branches, and cones can be a great source of crafting material. You can make hanging baskets, carves for furniture, and other beautiful decor creations during your leisure time.
9) Provision of Cool Shade
During the sunny seasons, your house gets cooled down. As a result, this will keep the temperature indoors favorable for you and your houseplants to benefit more. This will likely see you save more energy required by humidifiers and air conditioners.
Naturally shading part of your house comes with quite some visual scenery of beauty. It also enriches minds with artful nature besides leaving a sense of satisfaction.
Your lawn grass area in yard can also benefit too. You do not need to waste more time and resources to keep it in good shape. Shade from pine trees can slow down evaporation and provide a cover against strong heat.
10) Disinfectant Oil Spray
Pine oil is an essential product extracted from certain pine tree species including the Pinus pilustrus. You can either purchase the oil or make your DIY oil.
Where Pine Trees Grow Today
Pines trees naturally inhabit much of the Northern Hemisphere. They grow and can be grown in very many Regions and states of North America. They can grow and survive as from the cold hardiness zone 2 (USDA Zone 2) to less-freezing hardiness zone nine (USDA Zone 9).
With a fair distribution, pine trees grow in Northern Mexico, Eastern and Western Canada, Central America, and the Caribbean. They are also found naturally growing in China, parts of South-East Asia and the temperate climate of Europe.
They are well adapted to cold temperatures where other broadleaf plants cannot survive. Such places are the high-altitude mountainous environments of forest zones.
Where do pine trees grow? Can they grow on any soil type? Pine trees love full sun but not areas with tropical climates of the rainforest. They widely grow and better survive in well-drained sandy soils however much poorly nourished the soils are.
Garden places with alkaline to acidic soil can support the growth of pines. A few species (loblolly) can be grown in wet parts but rarely survive. There are also popular places and gardens growing pines such as the Oregon Garden and the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden.
Pine Trees For Landscaping + Images
In garden landscaping, woody trees can offer structural and visual definitions such as color, texture, size & shapes. Dwarf to miniature (semi-dwarf) varieties are the ideal pines for garden landscaping. A few large and taller varieties can be grown in botanical gardens, large business spaces, or homes apartments.
Here is our pine tree top picks for any serious gardener who owns a home:
- Pencil Point Juniper
- Swiss mountain pine (Pinus uncinata)
- Pinus mugo
- Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris)
- Japanese red or white pine
- Joppi Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi)
- Silveray Korean pine
- Tenysu kazu also called glodylocks
- Virginia pine tree
Garden growing tip: Avoid planting any tall pine varieties (e.g. Loblolly pine tree Pinus taeda) closer to your lawn area.
Common Garden Pine Tree Issues
Garden pine trees exuding little sap is normal and a sign they are healthy. However, if the sap oozes out often from many holes and in unusual patterns means there is a problem.
Below are the causes of excessive sap over-sap in pine trees.
- Injuries due to braches breaking in stormy weather or accidents
- Insects that bore the trunks
- Fungi causing a canker-like growth or blight in the trunk barks
Another issue is dry browning leaves and branches. This indicates water stress. Watering your trees on a need basis can easily solve the issue. Try also removing the lower branches.
Treat and address each problem separately. For injuries, do prune your trees at the right time. Pruning is preferable in spring or before extreme weather seasons such as heavy hail and storms.
Also, make sure the branches are well spaced and don’t touch each other. This can solve and fix the problem caused by injuries or prevent branches from breaking.
Many infections including fungi can be solved best by preventive means. Proper maintenance and care can do the rest. Remove diseased branches and cut off parts that tend to die back.
Pine Trees Growing Ideas — In Pictures
References & Sources
- Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2008, September 29). Pine oil. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/pine-oil
- Landscaping with Dwarf Conifers. The AMERICAN CONIFER SOCIETY. https://conifersociety.org/conifers/articles/landscaping-with-dwarf-conifers/. Accessed online 23 October 2021
- Conifers. MAINE.GOV. https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/publications/handbooks_guides/forest_trees/pdf/Pines.pdf. Accessed online 23 October 2021