Qualified arborists will be your best source of information. To get a range of perspectives (and proposals), talk to several.

What type of maple is it? If it is a sugar maple I would do all I could to keep it. If it is a silver maples I would get rid of it. If it is a red maple most would want to keep it evan though I am not a big fan of them. David

for me.. there is nothing objective about maples .. I HATE THEM ... ONLY.. because i want to grow things under my trees...

the neighbor had a new septic field put in .. here is what the first 12 inches of sand look like near an un-named maple ... you really arent going to grow anything under them .. no matter what you do .. how many times have i posted this picture.. lol ...

{{gwi:197426}}

now... they are hard wood trees.... you didnt ID yours.. so i may be wrong with the generalization .. they are not the worst thing to have near your house.... but in any good wind storm ... YOU REALLY SHOULD NOT HAVE THOUSANDS OF POUNDS OF TREES OVERHANGING YOUR HOUSE ... really.. when you think about it.. would you sleep under it ...

in my warped world.. i want to be awakened by the wind storm .. and know that nothing is hanging over my head ....

i agree ... invest the money in removal .... and start over... and besides.. its some of the best firewood ever made ... lol ... and the remainder is some of the best FREE hardwood chips you can use in the garden.. to mulch over the properly sized plants you are going to plant where the maple was ...

its funny i see this tonight.. i was just looking at the sapling in dad's yard.. that we planting in 1965 .... hanging over his house.. i dont know how to break it to the geezer.. that he ought to spend a grand to get it out of there.. before it falls on him .. go figure... its 11 feet from his bed .... and 65 feet tall ... yikes ... just last week a limb took out phone lines.. and missed the house by 13 inches .... I suppose he would rather spend the money on beer and not worry about it ... at 78 years old ...

whatever you decide .... good luck.. you asked for opinion .. ken

Hi all.

I wish I know what kind of maple it was; it does not have many outstanding qualities: kind of blaah fall color
( brownish yellow) but not a badly shaped tree. However, as you said Ken, it would be nice to plant something under or near it. I would prefer something with some sort of interest other than spring, when its brand new leaves are reddish as buds.

Sandy

Large-growing maples are popular because they are handsome and hardy. These are also shady and rooty - unsuitable for small home gardens and other situations with similar restrictions but great for parks and open places where beauty + ease of cultivation are desired.

There are three large maples of unknown species on my property - two of them are quite old (75+ years) and very (very) large. The younger one and one of the old ones are 10 and 15 feet from the house respectively. The house is 60 years old. Three of my four nearest neighbors have trees of similar vintage close to even older houses (1920s - 30s). It looks to me like maples and houses do OK together.

I could see, however, that a holly might well object to being planted near a maple. I have only woodland herbaceous species under mine - mayapples, hellebores, canadian ginger, arisaema, solomon seal, trillium.

I can't imagine what my electric bill would be like in the summer without the trees, and I love watching the birds and squirrels that live there, but maples do require compromise in terms of other gardening.

This winter I had a bigleaf maple drop a limb on a 'Caerhays Belle' magnolia and smash it. This was the first year it was going to bloom, at maybe as much as 10 ft. in height.

The larger species, such as Norway, Sugar, Big-leaf, and Red Maples, are fast growers (2-3 ft. a year), quickly building shade for a country lane or a large woodland garden of easy lines. For street planting and home gardens, oaks would be a better choice: They deliver big shade nearly as fast as the large maples, are less ready to drop limbs during snow and ice storms, and don't have the maples' dense, shallow, competitive roots

--Schenk, The Complete Shade Gardener (1984, Houghton Mifflin)

Here is a link that might be useful: Google Images Search Results

Blah fall color on a nicely shaped tree, sounds like it may be a Norway maple.
My opinion would to remove the maple, save the holly if possible and start over.
Like Ken, I cannot stand the large overplanted maples (Silver, Norway & Norway spp.) that grow fast and cause possible heartache...

Whatever the pros and cons of Norway maple, they DO, without exception, have great fall color. It must be different in other parts of the country, but all the N. maples, and there are a lot of them, that I've seen color up nicely in Fall, typically, an intense golden.

+oM

find a certified arborist. They should be aiming for preserving trees when feasible and removing them when they pose a hazard or diseased beyond treatment.
There is a directory of certified arborists at www.treesaregood.com

The blah fall color and having a nice shape also makes me think it is probably a norway maple. Norway maples are not a desireable species and due to their invasive weed status, a lot of people remove them for that reason alone. As mentioned sugar maples, red maples and in the right place even silver maples are nice trees, certainly worth keeping if they are mature and not a safety hazard and not hanging over your house.

Sounds like it is either Silver or Norway. In either case I would strongly lean towards removing it. What side of the house is the maple growing? If it is south or southwest, then I would consider keeping it ONLY for shade value.

I have a 50+ year old Silver maple twenty feet away from the southwest corner of the house. I love this tree and it's provides valuable shade (and the previous owner's grandfather planted it - we are friendly and it would kill her if I removed it! hehe) BUT I wouldn't plant one with 50-100 feet of house, gardens or septic systems. Aside form that, Acer saccharinum is native, has lots of character, and high wildlife value.

I am no fan of Norways and spent $2000 removing them so far. I removed a 50 year old tree due south of the house, which provided a lot of shade. It was an attractive tree, on good years a fairly yellow fall color, but I removed it simply because it's a Norway. They are very invasive here, spread a zillion seedlings everywhere, have incredibly dense, aggressive canopies, and thirsty, allelopathic roots.

You can't grow anything under either one really, so if you want to garden, it is beneficial to remove it.

Hi again,

There is no way that the holly is going to make it. The people who lived in this house when it was built 20 odd years ago just did not care about how big anything would grow. I have two blue spruces next to the garage that do nothing, and will be taken down, and two more on the other side of the house, behind the maple, actually, that are literally back to back to each other, so one of those needs to come down, too. We also had to take down a bradford pear that was leaning, and two ornamental cherry trees that had taken over our yard, and making it impossible for grass to grow b/c of the shade.