[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":194},["ShallowReactive",2],{"article:garden-tree-placement-feng-shui:en":3,"article-topic:garden-feng-shui:en":111,"related-articles:en:garden-feng-shui:garden-tree-placement-feng-shui:":183},{"slug":4,"title":5,"description":6,"category":7,"topicSlug":8,"legacyPath":9,"authorId":10,"publishedAt":11,"updatedAt":11,"noindex":12,"summary":13,"sections":14,"references":75,"relatedTools":91,"seo":92,"contentImage":97},"garden-tree-placement-feng-shui","Garden Tree Placement: Distance, Roots, and the Shade You Get","A tree keeps growing after it is planted, so the position is decided at mature size: canopy spread, root spread, and the distance the trunk needs from the wall. The traditional reading is used as a list of positions worth checking.","Feng Shui","garden-feng-shui","","chen-jun","2026-10-27",false,"Three numbers fix a tree position: mature canopy spread, mature root spread, and trunk-to-wall distance. Draw the canopy at full size on the ground before digging, then check the drainage run and the winter light on the wall.",[15,20,25,50,55,60,65],{"heading":16,"body":17},"A ten-year decision made in an afternoon",[18,19],"A tree is the only element in a garden that keeps growing after you have finished paying for it. That single fact reorganises the whole question. Paving is roughly final, a fence is roughly final; a tree is a commitment that changes shape every year, and the errors compound in one direction — more shade, more root, more leaf litter, more weight on whatever is underneath.","The useful way to choose a position is to imagine the mature tree and ask whether that version is still welcome there. Most disappointing garden trees were not badly chosen. They were planted at a size that no longer exists, and the photograph taken on planting day is the least useful record you will keep, because it captures the only moment when the spacing looks generous.",{"heading":21,"body":22},"Three measurements before you pick a spot",[23,24],"Three numbers decide the position, and all three are knowable before you buy: mature canopy spread, mature height, and mature root spread. The first two are on the nursery label. The third rarely is, but a workable proxy is that the feeding roots — the ones that take up water and heave paving — sit in the top half metre of soil and extend well past the canopy edge.","Write the numbers on the label in pencil, then mark the mature canopy on the ground at full size with a stick and a length of string. Standing inside a circle the size of the eventual canopy changes the decision faster than any advice. Most people find that the spot they had in mind puts the crown over the path, the gutter, or the boundary line.",{"heading":26,"body":27,"table":28},"Distance from the wall, by size class","The table is a starting point, not a survey. It assumes ordinary loam, a wall with a normal footing, and a tree in open ground rather than a raised bed pressed against the wall. Shrinkable clay, a shallow water table, or an old drain under the spot all push the figure outward.",{"headers":29,"rows":33},[30,31,32],"Mature height","Minimum trunk-to-wall distance","What fails first",[34,38,42,46],[35,36,37],"Under 4 m","1.5 m","Crown brushing the wall; gutter blocked",[39,40,41],"4–8 m","3 m","Winter shade on the wall; litter in the gutter",[43,44,45],"8–15 m","5 m","Roots finding the drainage run; paving lifting",[47,48,49],"Over 15 m","8 m, or a professional assessment","Movement on shrinkable clay; light blocked",{"heading":51,"body":52},"Which side, and what the shade actually does",[53,54],"Once the distance is fixed, the side decides what the tree does to the house. In the northern hemisphere a deciduous tree on the sunny face gives shade in summer and drops its leaves in time to let winter light through. An evergreen in the same position gives shade all year, and is the more common reason a room behind that wall feels cold and damp.","The winter case is the one people forget, because the loss is invisible in summer, when the room is comfortable either way. If the room already struggles with damp, planting an evergreen against that wall adds a windbreak exactly where you needed drying.",{"heading":56,"body":57},"Roots, drains, and what you cannot see",[58,59],"Roots are not drills. They follow water and oxygen, and they exploit openings that already exist — a cracked pipe, an old soakaway, a joint that has separated. A sound footing is rarely damaged by roots alone; a leaking drain beside a large tree is a different problem. In a small garden the drainage run therefore matters more than the wall, and the planting position should be checked against the sewer, the storm drain, and any soakaway before the hole is dug.","Two habits remove most of the remaining risk. Plant small and let it grow, because a young tree planted at the right distance overtakes a large specimen within a few years and establishes better. And keep the root flare clear: the point where the trunk widens into the roots must sit at or slightly above ground level, never buried under mulch, or the tree spends its first years short of air.",{"heading":61,"body":62},"What the old readings were pointing at",[63,64],"Classical garden writing gives a tree a position and a verdict: the large tree at the entrance is read as blocking, the tree behind the house as support, the tree over the gate as pressure. Read only as symbolism, the rules look arbitrary. Read as descriptions of a physical situation, they are close to what a surveyor would say. A big tree at the entrance does block light and sight lines, and does drop leaves on the path people use most. A tree behind the house does shelter it from the prevailing wind.","The reading is best used as a list of positions worth examining, not as a verdict on a species. When the traditional objection and the physical objection land on the same tree, the case for moving it is strong. When they diverge — a species called unlucky that is simply too big for the spot — size is still the reason to act, and the fix is the same.",{"heading":66,"body":67,"bullets":68},"The check to run before you dig","Five minutes with a tape and a phone camera answers most of what the decision turns on.",[69,70,71,72,73,74],"Draw the mature canopy on the ground at full size and walk the circle; note what it covers.","Measure trunk-to-wall and compare the figure with the table above.","Locate the sewer, the storm drain, and any soakaway; keep the trunk clear of all three.","Photograph the wall at midday in winter, so you know what light the tree will take.","Check whether the species is toxic to pets or children before it goes beside a path.","Confirm the root flare will sit at ground level once the hole is backfilled.",[76,84],{"id":77,"kind":78,"title":79,"detail":80,"publisher":81,"url":82,"accessedAt":83},"huangdiZhaijing","traditional","Huangdi Zhaijing (黄帝宅经)","Historical context for traditional residential orientation and spatial vocabulary. Modern recommendations are judged against real conditions.","Wikisource digital text","https:\u002F\u002Fzh.wikisource.org\u002Fwiki\u002F%E9%BB%83%E5%B8%9D%E5%AE%85%E7%B6%93","2026-07-14",{"id":85,"kind":86,"title":87,"detail":88,"publisher":89,"url":90,"accessedAt":83},"aspcaPlants","practical","ASPCA: Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants","A plant-safety reference for homes with cats, dogs, or other pets.","American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.aspca.org\u002Fpet-care\u002Faspca-poison-control\u002Ftoxic-and-non-toxic-plants",[],{"title":93,"description":94,"path":95,"type":96},"Garden Tree Placement: Distance, Roots, and Shade","Choose a garden tree position by mature canopy, root spread, and wall distance, then check the drains and the winter light before digging.","\u002Farticles\u002Fgarden-tree-placement-feng-shui","article",{"src":98,"srcByLocale":99,"alt":101,"width":102,"height":103,"altByLocale":104,"captionByLocale":107},"\u002Fimg\u002Farticles\u002Fgarden-tree-placement-feng-shui.svg",{"tw":100},"\u002Fimg\u002Farticles\u002Fgarden-tree-placement-feng-shui-tw.svg","Four size classes of garden tree, each with the minimum trunk-to-wall distance and the failure that appears first.",1280,960,{"zh":105,"tw":106},"四个体量级别的庭院树，各自对应的树干到墙最小距离，以及最先出现的问题。","四個體量級別的庭院樹，各自對應的樹幹到牆最小距離，以及最先出現的問題。",{"en":108,"zh":109,"tw":110},"Distance is set at mature size, not planting size: draw the eventual canopy on the ground and the decision usually makes itself.","距离按成年尺寸定，不按种下时的尺寸定：把将来的树冠画在地上，决定通常就自己出来了。","距離按成年尺寸定，不按種下時的尺寸定：把將來的樹冠畫在地上，決定通常就自己出來了。",{"topic":112,"articles":150,"tools":182},{"slug":8,"title":113,"eyebrow":114,"description":115,"relatedTools":116,"articleIdeas":117,"seo":121,"sections":125},"Garden Feng Shui","Outdoor and landscape","Garden feng shui treated as a site problem: the boundary band next to the wall, tree distance and shade, water as a maintenance load, courtyard enclosure, and the sight line from the gate.",[],[93,118,119,120],"Garden Water Features: Flow, Noise, and the Overflow Path","Courtyard Layout: Enclosure, Paths, and Usable Area","Garden Gates and Paths: Four Measurements Before Style",{"title":122,"description":123,"path":124},"Garden Feng Shui Guide","Garden and courtyard feng shui as a site problem: the boundary strip, tree distance and shade, water maintenance, enclosure, and the gate sight line.","\u002Ftopics\u002Fgarden-feng-shui",[126,129,132,135,138,141],{"heading":127,"body":128},"What an outdoor review can and cannot decide","Outdoors the constraints arrive in a different order. Indoors you usually rearrange objects inside a fixed shell; outside you are dealing with things that grow, move water, and load the ground. Roots lift paving, a canopy that fits this year will not fit in ten, and a low corner that holds water after one rain will hold it every rainy season afterwards. A traditional reading can tell you where a screen, a shelter, or a water body has usually been placed and why that placement felt settled. It cannot tell you whether a particular tree survives your winters or whether your soil drains. So the reading is the question and the site survey is the answer: the reading points at a place, and measurement decides what, if anything, goes there.",{"heading":130,"body":131},"Start with the strip that touches the wall","Begin with the first metre and a half of ground next to the building, because that strip decides more than the rest of the plot. Paving should fall away from the wall, never toward it; a fall of one to two percent across the width of the strip moves surface water without looking sloped. Check where the downpipes discharge, whether the damp course sits above soil level, and whether anything planted there will push roots into the footing or the drainage run. The classical preference for a sheltered back and an open front describes the same strip from the other side: planting on the windward side cuts winter heat loss, and an uncluttered front keeps light and access. Read the old rule as a wind-and-drainage instruction and it stops being decorative.",{"heading":133,"body":134},"Trees are a distance problem before a symbolism problem","Every tree question resolves into three measurements: mature canopy spread, mature root spread, and the length of the shadow the tree casts at midday in the season you care about. A tree whose canopy will eventually touch the wall is already too close on the day it is planted, because the bill arrives ten years later as blocked light, lifted paving, and a gutter full of leaves. As a working rule, keep the trunk at least half the mature canopy spread away from the wall, never less than three metres for a species that will exceed eight metres in height, and further still for shallow-rooted species or anything sitting over a drain. Only then choose the side: a deciduous tree on the sunny face gives shade in summer and lets light through in winter, while an evergreen in the same place gives permanent shade. Tradition hands a species a fortune; the site hands it a job. Where the two disagree, the job is the half you can check.",{"heading":136,"body":137},"Water is a maintenance problem before a direction problem","A water feature is a pump, a basin, a power supply, and a weekly task. Before direction, settle four numbers: how many litres the basin holds, how often the pump turns that volume over, how loud it is at one metre, and how many minutes a week the filter and the surface need. Standing water above roughly twenty degrees breeds mosquitoes in seven to ten days, so a feature switched off for a fortnight in summer is a nursery. The overflow path matters more than the outline: if the basin overflows toward the house, the water ends up back in the strip you just spent effort draining. The traditional caution about water running at the entrance is usually read as a fortune warning; physically it is a splash, erosion, and slip warning, and it holds up for those reasons.",{"heading":139,"body":140},"Paths and gates decide the sight line","A gate does two jobs: it passes the widest thing that ever needs to go through, and it frames what a visitor sees first. Measure the widest object — a wheelbarrow, a pram, a bin, a bike — and make the clear opening wider than that with the gate standing open. Then check the swing: a gate that opens inward across the path turns the first metre into a trap. Finally stand at the gate and look. Whatever you see first is what the garden is about; if the first thing is a bin store or a blank wall, the path is doing no work. A path running straight from gate to front door is the arrangement tradition comments on most often, and the physical version of that comment is that a straight run carries wind, water, and a direct view in a single line. Offsetting the run or interrupting it with planting costs a metre and answers all three.",{"heading":142,"body":143,"bullets":144},"Keep a record you can compare across seasons","Garden changes are slow, which makes them easy to misjudge. Fix four camera positions — the gate, the back door, the sunny corner, and the corner that stays wet — and photograph each one at the same hour in every season. Add a drainage note after the first heavy rain: where water stood, and for how long. Then change one thing per season and compare the same four frames.",[145,146,147,148,149],"Mark the four camera positions with a stake or a paving stone so the frame repeats.","Write the date and the hour on every photograph; changing light is the variable that fools you.","After heavy rain, walk the plot and mark standing water with a stick while it is still there.","Change one thing per season — one tree, one path, one drain — never three at once.","Keep the receipts and the plant labels; the record is what makes the next decision cheap.",[151,154,163,172],{"slug":4,"title":5,"description":6,"category":7,"topicSlug":8,"legacyPath":9,"authorId":10,"publishedAt":11,"updatedAt":11,"summary":13,"relatedTools":152,"seo":153},[],{"title":93,"description":94,"path":95,"type":96},{"slug":155,"title":118,"description":156,"category":7,"topicSlug":8,"legacyPath":9,"authorId":10,"publishedAt":11,"updatedAt":11,"summary":157,"relatedTools":158,"seo":159},"garden-water-feature-feng-shui","A water feature is a pump, a basin, and a weekly job before it is a direction. Four figures — volume, turnover, noise at one metre, and minutes per week — decide whether it is still pleasant in year three.","Volume, turnover, noise, and weekly minutes are the four figures to settle before siting a water feature. Then run the overflow path away from the house, and keep the splash zone a metre clear of the threshold.",[],{"title":160,"description":161,"path":162,"type":96},"Garden Water Features: Flow, Noise, Overflow","Site a garden water feature by volume, turnover, noise, and maintenance time, with the overflow path kept away from the wall and the door.","\u002Farticles\u002Fgarden-water-feature-feng-shui",{"slug":164,"title":119,"description":165,"category":7,"topicSlug":8,"legacyPath":9,"authorId":10,"publishedAt":11,"updatedAt":11,"summary":166,"relatedTools":167,"seo":168},"courtyard-layout-feng-shui","A courtyard behaves according to the ratio of wall height to open width, not according to its outline. Measure that ratio first, then decide how much floor the path is allowed to spend and which low point takes the water.","The height-to-width ratio decides whether a courtyard reads as a light well or a sheltered room. After that the path has to earn the floor it takes, the wet-weather route decides where paving goes, and one low point is chosen on purpose.",[],{"title":169,"description":170,"path":171,"type":96},"Courtyard Layout: Enclosure, Paths, Usable Area","Plan a courtyard by enclosure ratio, circulation area, and one deliberate low point, then test the layout at full size before building.","\u002Farticles\u002Fcourtyard-layout-feng-shui",{"slug":173,"title":120,"description":174,"category":7,"topicSlug":8,"legacyPath":9,"authorId":10,"publishedAt":11,"updatedAt":175,"summary":176,"relatedTools":177,"seo":178},"garden-gate-and-path-feng-shui","A gate is four measurements: the clear opening the widest load needs, the quarter circle the leaf sweeps, the 180 mm riser ceiling, and the angle the opening frames. Only the last is a design choice.","2026-11-02","The leaf sweeps a quarter disc of its own width, so a 1 m leaf needs 1 m of clear depth behind it. The code floor is 815 mm, the riser ceiling 180 mm, and a 1 m gate at 5 m frames 11.4 degrees of view.",[],{"title":179,"description":180,"path":181,"type":96},"Garden Gate Size: Opening, Swing, Threshold, Sight Line","Size a garden gate by clear opening, swing radius, riser height and sight-line angle, with the ADA figures and the arithmetic behind each one.","\u002Farticles\u002Fgarden-gate-and-path-feng-shui",[],{"articles":184},[185,188,191],{"slug":155,"title":118,"description":156,"category":7,"topicSlug":8,"legacyPath":9,"authorId":10,"publishedAt":11,"updatedAt":11,"summary":157,"relatedTools":186,"seo":187},[],{"title":160,"description":161,"path":162,"type":96},{"slug":164,"title":119,"description":165,"category":7,"topicSlug":8,"legacyPath":9,"authorId":10,"publishedAt":11,"updatedAt":11,"summary":166,"relatedTools":189,"seo":190},[],{"title":169,"description":170,"path":171,"type":96},{"slug":173,"title":120,"description":174,"category":7,"topicSlug":8,"legacyPath":9,"authorId":10,"publishedAt":11,"updatedAt":175,"summary":176,"relatedTools":192,"seo":193},[],{"title":179,"description":180,"path":181,"type":96},1793614153515]