Anja Murray: Now is the ideal time for planting trees

Anja Murray: "One of the characteristics that makes birch such a good tree to grow in gardens and urban areas is the way in which they grow: tall, slender, wispy and light, never taking too much sunlight from the ground beneath."

Late winter is an ideal time for planting trees. Settling a sapling in to the ground in February and March gives a young tree a chance to settle in before the sap begins to rise, ushering a new season of growth. By spring equinox, the soil is beginning to warm up, inviting delicate young roots to probe their new setting and encouraging new leaves to unfurl.

Each type of soil, balancing mineral and organic components, levels of acidity or chalkiness, wet versus dry, offers very different opportunities to young trees. Each tree species has evolved through millennia to succeed in different conditions. This means that which trees you chose to plant must be well matched to ground conditions if they are to have any chance of thriving in to maturity.