Front yard Tree?

[davent]

Are Dutch Elm Disease and Chestnut Blight no longer issues? And monstrous sewer invasive trees for such a small piece of frontage. Next door neighbour had an Elm when we moved in, before Dutch Elm killed annual auguring of our sewer was necessary and after the tree was gone the old clay sewer line collapsed, fun times.

dave

 

[ElectroMike]

The first time I had the sewer line replaced it went from cast iron to clay to pvc, it was replaced with pvc but not far enough back. Second time the sewer was dug out, the cast was cut a foot after the foundation and a full new pcv line was routed to the main. Eight years or so later the roots pushed around and got under the sleeve, so every four months I open the floor clean out inside the house and with a flashlight can see where the roots are coming, only a few feet out, where the cast/pcv connection is, so I clean it out myself but it was getting old and I did not want to pay for another dig, so the dying Swamp Maple had to go.

Now I'm debating, do I get a different type tree such as an ornament tree or screw it and get a Brown Maple or similar, plant it a bit further (10' away) and play the numbers game, figuring it will take over 30 years for the roots to get to the sewer and by then I will either be lucky to be alive or be in a retirement home and this will be someone else's problem!?

 

[shoelessjoe]

A Catalpa tree (aka, Western or Northern Catalpa) might be worth a look ... I ordered one of of these ornamental, fast-growers last month, but it won’t ship until mid/late fall, its’ optimal planting season.

Link: Northern Catalpa Tree on the Tree Guide at arborday.org

 

[FarmerTan]

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in."

This has become me..... I mowed yesterday an area of my property that i had neglected for years due to health/work concerns. Anyhoo.... I found some trees I had planted that are now close to 20' tall..... the day before that I planted some English Walnut samplings. My son may thank me some day.

 

[FarmerTan]

A Catalpa tree (aka, Western or Northern Catalpa) might be worth a look ... I ordered one of of these ornamental, fast-growers last month, but it won’t ship until mid/late fall, its’ optimal planting season.

Link: Northern Catalpa Tree on the Tree Guide at arborday.org

My dad planted a Catalpa tree the year I was born. The family always called it my tree as i was growing up. My son called it a marsh mallow tree, lol. Just finished blooming. A delicious smelling blossom, intoxicating, really. In the still of the evening it will smell up the neighborhood with it's fragrance. I've often thought it would make a great cologne for men or women. I ramble.... anyway, it does grow fast, mine is probably 50 feet tall, trunk at chest height is over 2' in diameter. It is planted too close to my seepage bed, but no sign of damage in the past 56 years, and my septic system was installed in 1958..... so, now for the drawbacks: some folks call it a dirty tree. Copious amount of leaves in the fall, those beans sometimes don't drop till the following spring. My aged tree also likes to shed small limbs/twigs year round, but nothing a riding mower can't chew up.

PS... It is in the Magnolia family, but as it flowers so late, we folk in the north actually get to smell the blossoms, lol.

 

[bberg100]

Get with a local nursery or extension office to check what grows well in your area and what threats there are, ie, Ash Borers, Pine & Spruce Beetles, etc. Hate to plant something expensive only to loose it to pests in a couple years.

 

[August West]

This has become me..... I mowed yesterday an area of my property that i had neglected for years due to health/work concerns. Anyhoo.... I found some trees I had planted that are now close to 20' tall..... the day before that I planted some English Walnut samplings. My son may thank me some day.

Love it.

 

[FarmerTan]

Get with a local nursery or extension office to check what grows well in your area and what threats there are, ie, Ash Borers, Pine & Spruce Beetles, etc. Hate to plant something expensive only to loose it to pests in a couple years.

Smart, sir.

 

[August West]

Get with a local nursery or extension office to check what grows well in your area and what threats there are, ie, Ash Borers, Pine & Spruce Beetles, etc. Hate to plant something expensive only to loose it to pests in a couple years.

Most wise.

 

[ElectroMike]

In either case, whatever I get, I plan to get it from a local nursery and will consult them but I want to have a list of trees picked out going in.

So that's what the Cigar tree is called a Catalpa! I had one on my back yard, never knew the name, we liked it, it grew out of no where and was pushing 30 feet within 10 years or so. We had to get rid of it about 7 years ago since we were putting up a house addition and it was in the way. We regret cutting it but it was that or looking for a bigger house.

 

[Esox]

Anything but a Boxelder Maple, also known as a Manitoba Maple.

You'll be infested with Boxelder bugs.

They can also infest Silver Maple.

I had an outbreak of them here 4 or 5 years ago. RAID doesnt kill them. They just hunker down and then walked away with foam on their backs. They have a layer of wax on them so most pesticides dont work. Windex, or any ammonia based spray however, kills them almost instantly by dissolving the wax then they absorb the ammonia.

 

[FarmerTan]

Love it.

I was fortunate that my folks retired and wanted to downsize at the same time I was about to marry my lovely bride, and as i had a home business cutting hair it allowed me to keep the homestead together and keep making a buck or three. I'm slower than I was but still happier than I've any right to expect.

 

[FarmerTan]

Anything but a Boxelder Maple, also known as a Manitoba Maple.

You'll be infested with Boxelder bugs.

They can also infest Silver Maple.

I had an outbreak of them here 4 or 5 years ago. RAID doesnt kill them. They just hunker down and then walked away with foam on their backs. They have a layer of wax on them so most pesticides dont work. Windex, or any ammonia based spray however, kills them almost instantly by dissolving the wax then they absorb the ammonia.

Ingenious! I had to rid myself of a box elder due to those bugs. The wood smells when I heat with it, but the grain quite often has an absolutely beautiful red color running through it.

 

[August West]

I was fortunate that my folks retired and wanted to downsize at the same time I was about to marry my lovely bride, and as i had a home business cutting hair it allowed me to keep the homestead together and keep making a buck or three. I'm slower than I was but still happier than I've any right to expect.

I consider myself a lucky man.

 

[Bhugo]

Many varieties of Honey Locusts that I have planted are perfect for a yard in Michigan. Sunburst and Shademaster are by back and front yard trees. Grows pretty quickly and are very clean. No raking is my favorite attribute.

 

[FarmerTan]

Many varieties of Honey Locusts that I have planted are perfect for a yard in Michigan. Sunburst and Shademaster are by back and front yard trees. Grows pretty quickly and are very clean. No raking is my favorite attribute.

And I might add, an incredible source of Btu's for wood heat. Very dense.

 

[chilehed]

I vote for American Elm or American Chestnut. Lets help to bring them back.

From your mouth to God's ears, pal. There were a couple of HUGE American Elms in front of our county courthouse until about ten years ago, and they were absolutely magnificent; they were given almost constant care to keep Dutch Elm disease at bay but they finally succumbed.

NC State University has been working to hybridize Chinese Chestnut with American to come up with a blight resistant strain, and I think that it's showing some hope. It would be wonderful to have the American Chestnut back as the predominant mast source east of the Mississippi - the descriptions of a chestnut forest in bloom sound spectacular. But they wouldn't be a very good tree for the yard, unless you wanted to have to wear boots outside.

As has been noted, fast-growing trees tend to brittle wood which is bad near anything you don't want to get crushed.

Locusts provide good dappled shade, the leaves are small which is good when they drop, and they're adaptable to difficult environmental conditions.

A few years ago I planted a cultivar of the Chinese Lacebark Elm (ulmus parvifolia "Allee") in my front yard, and suggest that it's very worthy of consideration.

 

[Billski]

I vote for American Elm or American Chestnut. Lets help to bring them back.

I go along with @Fairwind.

 

[njpaddy]

A Catalpa tree......

What a disgusting, annoying, worthless tree. My neighbor has one at the edge of our property line that's probably 50-60 years old. We've been waiting for it to fall on our house for 17 years. We hold our breath every time we get a nor'easter or hurricane. I've offered to pay half to cut it down, but the original owner's daughter who grew up in the house, and who lives in the mid-west, doesn't want to because her father planted it. It overhangs our driveway and back yard and we can't park under it because if it isn't the flowers or elephant leaves or foot-long seed pods falling on lawn & cars, it's aphid crap or branches. The tree was full of carpenter ants until a few years ago when I sprayed the tree (when no one was home) and my foundation with Termidor SC. At least it cured my carpenter ant problem.

As for what I would plant: I have a beautiful Japanese red maple in the corner of my house planted by the previous owner. Beautiful tree, but I wish it was in the center of yard, where I could just let it grow, instead of under the power lines to the house where I have to keep it trimmed.

 

[chilehed]

What a disgusting, annoying, worthless tree.

Oh, I don't know - a fine specimen is quite handsome, which makes them a really good tree for someone else's yard.

Local laws might allow you to trim a neighbor's tree where it overhangs your property, especially if it's a nuisance. Whether you do or not would depend on how important it is to remain on speaking terms with them.

Most of the trees that I think are really worth having grow rather slowly:

• Paperbark Maple (acer griseum)
• Katsura Tree (cercidiphyllum japonicum); anyone visiting the Asheville area needs to visit the Biltmore Estate if only to see the big one in the garden.
• Japanese Stewartia (stewartia pseudocamellia)
• Pagoda Dogwood (cornus alterifolia)
• Any number of cultivars of the Japanese Maple (acer palmatum): Moonglow, Oshio Beni... there are tons of nice jap maples.
• Black Tupelo (nyssa sylvatica) might work, it prefers moist soils but doesn't require them, and the fall color is absolutely spectacular.

Better than almost all in my book would be a Dove Tree (davidia involucrata), in bloom it's perhaps the most spectacular tree I've ever seen. I'd rip anything else out by the roots if it would only grow up here.

Or the legendary Ben Franklin tree (franklinia alatamaha), which besides being slow growing is also very finicky. I might even rip out a Dove Tree for one of those.