If you’ve worked on a civil engineering or soft landscaping project in recent years, you’ll know that tree shelters for landscaping have become central to meeting legal requirements, biodiversity obligations and long-term sustainability goals in development.
Thanks to new legislation like Biodiversity Net Gain, projects now need to leave the environment in a better state than they found it. If you cut down trees, you don’t just replant, you need to protect what you plant and ensure it survives.
And that’s the hard part: making sure they stay alive. But that’s precisely where our tree shelters for landscaping come in.
Tube or Not To Be
Tree shelters are often seen as simple plastic or biodegradable guards to stop animals from nibbling young saplings. While true, they do far more, especially on soft landscaping and civil engineering sites. These aren’t quiet woodland corners. They’re roadsides, embankments, exposed ground and often disturbed soil, where a young tree needs all the help it can get to survive.
Our proven, recyclable tree shelters for landscaping create a protective microclimate that shields saplings from pests and the elements, boosting early growth by reducing temperature fluctuations and conserving moisture around the root zone. This encourages stronger, faster establishment to help young trees grow taller, quicker, and with more developed root systems in their formative years. They also provide a vital barrier against herbicide drift, mechanical damage and harsh weather, which can otherwise prevent a tree’s development.
In short, they give your planting a fighting chance. And in big projects involving hundreds or even thousands of trees, those improved growth rates and survival chances matter, not only for the environment but for your budget and bottom line.
For Landscape Contractors, It’s the Details That Count
On the ground, landscaping, civil engineering and groundwork contractors are tasked with installing these shelters. Many are already factoring in maintenance periods and early aftercare as part of their standard process. That’s because they’ve seen what happens when protection fails: costly replanting, failed biodiversity audits and sometimes even public outcry.
Specifying the proper tree guard is about future-proofing your planting. For civil engineering contractors, it can be the difference between meeting your biodiversity obligations or going back to square one. For groundwork teams, it’s a key part of soft landscaping success. For architects and planners, it’s a way to build long-term environmental value from the very start.
The Tubex Approach
We offer a wide range of tree shelters for landscaping, built to meet the diverse needs of soft landscaping and civil engineering projects. From fast-install wrap shelters for whips, to stockier shrub shelters for broader planting schemes, our range includes shorter options for urban sites and taller shelters for more exposed conditions.
Whether you’re planting in parks, road verges, embankments or large infrastructure projects, we have options to suit the environment, including recyclable and biodegradable shelters.
Choosing the proper shelter is only part of the picture. Increasingly, clients are asking what happens after the shelter has done its job, wanting to ensure the tools we use to protect the environment don’t damage it in the long run. That’s why sustainability-minded landscape contractors turn to schemes with responsible recycling programmes or biodegradable options.
We are proud to support that shift. Our range of tree shelters for landscaping is designed with performance and responsibility in mind. Through our national Collection & Recycling Programme, we’ve recycled over 1.1 million tree guards to date, helping our partners close the loop, meet their sustainability goals and protect the environments they’re working hard to enhance.
Protection Pays Off
Tree guards aren’t just about protection anymore. They’re about credibility andshowing that your project takes biodiversity and sustainability seriously. They may be a small line in the spec, but when it comes to outcomes — tree survival, compliance, and long-term reputation carry far more weight than most people realise.
So, if you’re working in soft landscaping, planning a new road or drawing up a planting spec for an infrastructure project, don’t leave your tree protection to chance. A trusty Tubex tree shelter for landscaping could be the difference between success and a costly re-do.
