Sandy, I can uderstand how you came to your idea, but have to reiterate that I think it isn't ideal. Again, I would put a shrub, or several shrubs there in the corner, because a tree is going to grow into/over the sidewalk, blocking it with branches, and gnerally getting in the way. If it's a BIG tree, then it may well also grow long enough branches that it needs to be trimmed away from the side of the garage. A shrub in that location will maybe get wide enough to run up against the sidewalk or possibly the driveway, but the right one won't. With a shrub, you can know beforehand about how wide it will get, but most trees aren't so obliging - there are exceptions, but... If you want an evergreen shrub, do you want a tall one (4-8') or will a couple of shorter ones (2-5') do, or do you want both heights? Either, coupled with an tallish evergreen tree by itself in the middle of the lawn, would give enough visual mass to balance the addition. Me, I think I might go for a mix, maybe a small or medium evergreen to provide winter mass, and something like a butterfly bush to give summer interest. You can keep Buddleias trimmed to the size you want, and in fact, should trim them in summer after a bloom flush to get better reblooming. If you don't want to cut a shrub back hard in the spring, and a couple of times in the summer, then a crepe myrtle could be very nice. Since you can chose cultivars that range in height from 3' to 40', and colors from white, red, purple and pink, you have a wide variety to select from. A rhododendron or a camellia would also give you an evergreen, with flowers in winter/spring, with azaleas at the base for lower fill-in. Selecting for height and color could give a very nice effect with either or both. The camellia can be trimmed, if you really want a formal effect at the corner. For a taller evergreen tree, out in the lawn, I might go with a conifer - NOT a Leyland or something that will get 40-60' - but an interesting one with a good form or maybe a variegated or color selection. I would LOVE to have a weeping Atlas or Alaskan blue cedar growing in my lawn! You could also go with another magnolia, or with a holly - some of them can get pretty tall. There is certainly enough room for a tree in the lawn, unless, of course, you like the expanse of it and don't WANT another tree out there....

If you are back East this is one of those kinds that has been the cause of multiple posts wondering what was going on with their tree. Other than that, it produces a spreading top of greater width than you have indicated - when fully developed. Specimens have been measured with average crown spreads more than double 20'-25'. Visually the tree is a sort of cattleya orchid, with a sensational flowering contrasting with a utilitarian foliage appearance. Fall color is more than yellow but not spectacular. A modern, disease-resistant flowering crabapple cultivar might be a better bet for you. Or maybe a service berry with good fall color, as long as pests and diseases in your area do not make these a gamble.

I have three black cherry trees towards the back of my backyard. They were beautiful in 2006 when we built our home, very brilliant yellow leaves in late into the fall and some subtle white flowers in the Spring. About two years later we noticed the the leaf spot occurring within 1-3 months after leaf out and the leaves would drop throughout the entire season and by fall there was almost nothing remaining on the tree. I hired a reputable tree service company to take a look at them and they indicated that this was due to 2 things.... 1) We had a very wet spring that year which increases the likelihood of that particular leaf spot fungus and 2) Even though our house was located 50+ feet away from the trees, the roots were likely disrupted when the foundation was dug. Not surprisingly they recommended we treat all 3 trees with injected fertilizer and fungicide. I chose to treat one of them and see what happened, and they all ended up recovering over the next few years on about exactly the same schedule as one another so I don't think the treatment was at all necessary. Just hang in there, give it time and make sure that you are giving it the correct amount of water based on the weather conditions. Check out the link below to Casey Trees. It is a fascinating nonprofit organization in the DC area. lots of great information. One of the suggestions I found on that site was to purchase a rain gauge on Amazon and actually monitor how much rain we are getting locally to know if watering is actually necessary. It can be very tricky since the symptoms for too much water and not enough are so similar and soil differences have such a huge impact as well. It is a nice looking tree! Good luck! Steve Here is a link that might be useful: Casey Trees - Tree Watering

To determine the proper depth at planting, I'd gently dig down/flake the soil off of the top of the rootball until I got to the first root. Trees should be planted so that the highest root is approximately at ground level (in some cases with poorly draining soil, just slightly above that). Often trees and shrubs come planted at the wrong depths from the nursery. Unfortunately you can't assume that the top of the rootball is the correct planting depth. With some growers, as long as there is dirt and a plant in the pot, it's ready to sell. I will provide a link to my planting instructions below. If read carefully, I think/hope they will answer most of your planting questions. Weed barriers (the plastic and fiber stuff) will usually kill preexisting weeds and grass by cutting off their light, but they do nothing, or next to nothing, to stop seeds from germinating and growing roots down through the material. They also do nothing to control spreaders (like Bermuda grass), which also sends roots down through the material. When weeds and grass anchor themselves through the weed barrier, they can become impossible to remove without removing the entire weed barrier. I've actually done jobs where we had to remove the entire weed barrier by either cutting it into small sections and digging the whole mass of weeds, roots, and weed barrier out or use a skidsteer to scoop the mess out. Talking about a disaster! The second reason that root barriers are bad is because the repel water and nutrients and decrease soil gas exchange. All of them do this to some degree; some are worse than others. The ones that do the best job of blocking weed growth are probably the worst for blocking water, nutrient, and gasses. Another reason they are bad is because they block decomposing mulch from being mixed into the soil. Mulch can really benefit the tilth and fertilization of your soil if allowed to break down and mix into the soil. Here is a link that might be useful: Planting a Tree or Shrub