Description of Trees for smaller yards and some for larger yards

11 years ago

Some trees for smaller yards and some for larger yards-

Thanks to AZTreelvr for the excellent suggestions and descriptions!

Cascalote (Caesalpinia cacalaco)
15 x15 feet at maturity
Full sun
Young trees are very thorny
Stunning yellow winter flowers followed by colorful red seedpods
Low litter

Feather Tree (Lysiloma microphylla v. thornberi)
15x15 feet at maturity
Full sun/Partial sun
No thorns
Sensitive to the cold
Beneficial to native wildlife
Small white puffball flowers from May to June (flat seedpods follow bloom)

Mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus)
15 x 20 feet at maturity
Full Sun
No thorns
Evergreen tree with stiff, dark green leaves turn red in the fall.
Low litter

Sweet Acacia (Acacia farnesiana)
20 x 20 feet at maturity
Full sun
Thorny
Sweet-scented flowers lend nice winter color
Beneficial to native wildlife

Texas Ebony (Pithecellobium flexicaule)
20 x 15 feet at maturity
Full sun, accepts some shade
Dark green leaf color all year
Thorny
Beneficial to native wildlife

Vitex (Vitex Agnus-castus)
20 x 20 at maturity
Full sun
Dark green leaves spring to fall (deciduous in winter)
No thorns
Spikes of purple (or white, pink) flowers all summer, attracts butterflies

Trees that are fairly fast growing and would stay green most of the year and will have a nice full canopy- some litter.

Sonoran Emerald hybrid palo verde
30 x 30 at maturity
Fast growing
Full sun
No thorns
Dense canopy with dark green, lush foliage
Bright yellow flowers in spring, few seed pods
Low litter

Evergreen Elm (Ulmus parvifolia)
30 x 30 at maturity
Fast growing
Full Sun
Semi-evergreen
Attractive bark

Chitalpa (Chitalpa taskentensis)
20 - 30' tall and wide at maturity
Leaves are 1/2" wide and 5-6" long
Full sun
No thorns
Showy clusters of pink or white flowers during warm months
No seeds
Deciduous in winter

Comment

Related Discussions
Taking down Bradford Pear Tree in Front yard what other tree?
Q
Comments (18)
For the names of the maples you'd have to ask the nursery owner. But he may not know; so what you can also do is look at the growth habit of the tree and try to project out 20 years... and maples also lend themselves to pruning. If you want a high canopy, then all the branches you are looking at today will eventually be pruned off and a similar shape will be over your head. That is why to me the second maple/third picture looks more like what your property needs. But you could accommodate them both, or all three, if you manage them (once the other Bradford is gone, and honestly, it will likely be a lot cheaper to get rid of both at once - on the other hand, letting a new tree grow in for a few years first means you won't have to go through a moonscape phase). It actually looks like you might have a little new tree by the fence? Maples aren't always appreciative of being gardened under so if you want a flower bed I would be more inclined to remove your foundation hedge and corner pyramid evergreen, and make a nice garden there - those plantings weren't genius choices to start with and are getting past their best-before date. Removing that corner evergreen especially would open up your front door area nicely. Tree removal is always a good opportunity to rethink the whole property landscaping. If you do a plan view diagram and draw circles on it to represent the future canopies of your trees you may find it easier to think of options and placements. Consider sun direction and where you want shade. True you don't have a lot of room but there is scope for much better use of what you have. KarinL
...See More
trying to figure out a front yard tree(s) for a smallish lot
Q
Comments (14)
How many feet is it from the house to the front flower bed? How many feet from the sidewalk that leads from the house to the neighbors property line to the left? I'm not sure how you'd get the shading to the porch you want without blocking the view of the house from the street. How does the sun travel over your house? What side of the house does the sun rise and set? Do you want shading to the 2nd floor windows eventually? Are their any underground utilities on the left side of the front yard? I'm asking a lot of questions, aren't I! I do like the three trees you chose, but don't have any of them, so I can't help you with their growing habits. I think a non-fruiting crab would be great too. I guess I'm asking how large a height and spread would you like and what dimensions would be too big? Is the dogwood at the back of the house on the left side?
...See More
small tree for small yard?
Q
Comments (13)
Tsuga - our Serviceberry is planted in an east facing location, with only morning sun. Wondering if yours has a more open habit? That's what I expect with mine in these conditions. How are the spring blooms and fall color for you? By any chance do you have any pictures you can share? I'd love to see a mature one in the landscape. We just planted ours earlier this year. I'd love to see pics of your Satomi as well. Milwaukeean, when I think of crabapples I think of a messy tree with lots of maintenance, maybe I'm wrong. I also think of a low branching tree, not ideal for the placement. Gardener, I'm on my second year with the heptacodium, can't wait for it to mature. My narrowed choices, though I'm leaning more towards the latter two: 1. Fringe tree - lacks four season interest, late to wake up in spring 2. Serviceberry Autumn Brilliance - seasonal interest, I have this already in my front yard 3. Kousa Dogwood - other than the flower color, what are the primary differences between white flowered and Satomi? I'm planting this next to a purple leaf sandcherry, which of these do you think would compliment it more? Kousa Dogwood - are the berries messy? I read they prefer shade, my placement would be full sun, how will it fare in this condition?
...See More
Need help with landscape design for smaller, north-facing front yard
Q
Comments (4)
Check out this video by Rosalin Creasy, the queen of edible landscaping. She also has a Web site. Then follow any links from there. You'll find a lot of inspirational photos and resources online. Yaardvark's basic design can be followed, you just need to figure out edible plants with the shapes he has drawn that thrive in your zone. I'm not that up on edible weeping plants, but lots of big shrub-shaped edible fruits and there are also fruit trees that have a columnar shape (column shape) such as sentinel apple trees. Raspberries and blackberry tend to get droopy and weepy-ish shaped (fountain shaped). There are edible easy to maintain groundcovers too, like lingonberry, although they need acid soil to thrive so you may have to amend. I grew bearberry which also goes by the name kinnikinnick as a groundcover. It is not really "edible" so much as medicinal, where it goes by the name Uva ursi. Lots of herb ground covers like thyme and chamomile and some low growing mints. There's also wintergreen but that needs shade and can be fussy. Not too much in the way of edible evergreens although you can grow balsam or fraser fir in some zones and collect the needles for their scent and oil. With juniper you can harvest the berries and make gin. Some junipers are columnar. Some make good groundcover, a fairly common low maintenance option for small yards. Edited to add that you're going to have to be thoughtful about planting your front yard since most edible plants like sun or partial sun, and your sun is going to be filtered at best. Try not to plant things in the shade of other things, so watch where the shadows fall during a whole day at different times.
...See More

Description of Trees for smaller yards and some for larger yards

Comment

Related Discussions

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US