Home Improvement → Re: Looking for landscape/outdoor living design help

Your message has been forwarded to the wife for review. The willow tree was her call, and I haven't looked into the downsides yet.I had all that explained in the original link, but forgot to copy it over. There is a "drainage easement" that runs 20' from the fence at the back, and 7.5' on the sides. Putting anything in that area requires permission from the county. I had to get special permission to put the fence at the property line, but that was really easy to get. The guy explained that trees/shrubs/flowers are almost blanket approved, while anything artificial requires manual review. But even then, the county is extremely lax about what they will allow. When we get annexed into the city, which I expect to happen in the next few years, it will be just the opposite. In fact the city flat denies anything at all in the easement, going so far as to force fences to be set inside the easement. (the gap between them looks really stupid) So I need to get anything in those areas done before that happens. Once it's up, the county approval is grandfathered.

Do you want to add any trees for privacy or just for shade and yard ascetics? Living in Indiana I doubt you would need to irrigate long term for your trees so that shouldn't be too much of an issue.

If it was left up to me, I would just stick with some maple trees and depending on if you want a lot of free space spread them around. I would dump the willow tree, since the roots will be increably shallow and they are a mess. Plus as far as trimming, if it grows into your neighbors yard that could be problematic.

Trees would be primarily for shade and aesthetics. I think the lot is too open to try to use them for privacy, and even if I did, it would look funny with all the open lots around me.

I like Maple, and the wife wants at least 1 ever green. She has never lived in snow, so she wants a "Christmas tree" in the yard.

The evergreen can be used as a privacy tree as long as they are spaced out ok, it will also grow quickly depending on the breed you get. They will wreak havoc on any grass near them, and depending on the breed and maintenance anything under them, so keep that in mind. Also again depending on your maintenance and desired appearance will gobble up yard space.

I have 5 conifer trees in my yard, down from six, and likely on my way 4. I was gifted in my current house to have mature trees which is nice but limits a lot of my options. The shade that they provide is a godsend in the summer, but can be a bane in the fall. I wouldn’t trade even in the fall when taking load after load to the leaf depot (my city doesn’t do curb side service) and the extra 150$ for leaf service for my trash company is a waste.

I would avoid Oak trees, as it is always dropping something on my yard.

Re: Willows

And in addition to being messy trees (that people end up paying $$ to take down), they have roots that go everywhere in search of water, pipes to break, foundations to breach, etc.