Change is in the trees | In Fiona's Garden

The garden is bigger and we've added plants, paths, ponds, steps, arches - but nothing has altered its appearance more than trees.

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Some, sadly, have departed, including the ones I miss most, three large old English elms that sheltered our entrance but which succumbed to elm bark beetle and despite our best efforts had to go.

Others have grown massively, the best a majestic English oak (Quercus robur) planted in 1960.

This sturdy, beautiful tree has given us numerous hardy little saplings which we've dug up and shared with friends and local plant stalls.

The biggest change, though, has come from the trees we've introduced, because now wherever we look, instead of sky we see their increasingly lofty canopies.

They frame the north-easterly view from the front verandah and give us summer shade, winter sun, spring blossom, autumn colour and birds all year round. I love them more than anything in the garden.

The first tree I planted here was a tiny deodar seedling (Cedrus deodara) bought at a school plant stall.

A year later I planted another cedar to keep it company, a Blue Atlantic (C. atlantica 'Glauca'). This was a bigger plant from a local nursery who warned me it was slow, but thanks to Bill's assiduous watering throughout its youth, it shot up.

The deodar eventually overtook it and comparing the two trunks today, the Atlantic cedar has a circumference of 120 centimetres at a height of 140cm, and the deodar has achieved a chunky 150cm.

Other conifers that like our red granite soil and dry summers include Aleppo pines (Pinus halepensis), Irish junipers (Juniperus hibernica) which, astonishingly, are flourishing in a climate the polar opposite of their home, Italian cypresses (Cupressus sempervirens) and Spartan junipers (J. 'Spartiana').

Among deciduous trees the Chinese elm (Ulmus parvifolia), a medium tree (12m to 15m) is the fastest growing. My original tree is well over the house roof and another I planted five years ago is already over 5m.

Chinese elms have a graceful, spreading canopy and their bark ages to mottled reddish brown, cream and grey. They are almost evergreen in our climate.

Our best native trees include the white cedar (Melia azedarach), the hickory wattle (Acacia falciformis) with sickle shaped leaves and cream flowers, and the manna or ribbon gum (Eucalyptus viminalis) native to south-east Australia.

The white cedar, confusingly, is not a conifer: its name comes from its soft, all-purpose timber's similarity to that of the Australian cedar (Toona ciliata) beloved by cabinet makers.

It has sweet smelling, purple summer flowers and dark yellow, bead-like berries in winter.

The manna gum is a hardy, fast grower, with white bark and pendulous branches, lovely for the visual link it creates between our garden and the distant, bush-covered hills.

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