This time of year is your last chance to plant trees or hedges.  I’m talking about the dug out kind, not the ‘grown in a pot’ variety.

Few people are lucky enough to have sufficient room in their garden for more than one or two trees - I only have the one - so how do you decide which would be best?

Here’s my personal top three, given the criteria of a small garden:

Sorbus hupehensis - this is a Chinese rowan tree whose leaves turn a beautiful shade of yellow and red in the autumn season.  It gives white flowers and throughout the winter holds white, pink stained berries that are great for attracting birds.

Malus tschonoskii - this is a very neat tree, upright, doesn’t take up much room. Has pretty pink and white flowers with red and yellow fruits.

Prunus subhirtella Autumnalis - I’ve picked this as the top one purely because of its size.  Unless you have a garden the size of the interior of my peugeot, this tree should fit.  It gives pretty pink or white flowers throughout the winter, whenever the temperature rises a little.

So there you have it - the top three small trees for a small garden.