Hey, have fun--and you can plant your favorite trees and consider how they will affect your view from your own yard. Wow!

--Spruce

OK, what does she want - shade, color - flowers, fruit or fall color - big, little, tall, wide, formal, informal, specimens, grove, deciduous, conifer, evergreen, WHAT? Too much of a blank check right now. Are you country, suburban, city? Is her house one story or two? What does it look like, what is the layout of driveway and yard, what else is planted in her yard? You know what it looks like, so give us some help here!

She has no particular preferences. I asked what are your needs... shade... privacy... what? She said she doesn't have any needs just wants some trees.

The backyard which is what needs the most work is just a rectangle. This is my next door neighbor. Behind each of us is about half acre of woods regrowing after being cleared for develpment. Then it's 90+' tall tulip poplars,oak, sweetgum beyond that. Full sun, southern exposure. The houses are 2 stories. Since I have trees near the property line (columnars) this might be a good opportunity to plant something that won't interfere with my trees.

So wants low (no) maintenance

I would go insane if I had the opportunity to plant in neighbor's yards. They've all cut their trees down. I'm sure I won't be able to stop and will be planting all over the neighborhood in the middle of the night. You are SO lucky!

Hope she's willing to water for the 1st 3 years. If no sprinkler system, hose sprinklers on timers works really well.

Your trees must shade one side of her house, and that might be why she did not mention any needs. Does she have a different neighbor on the other side of her house with trees which also provide her shade and privacy?

If so, you can pretty much just focus on nice ornamental, and/or interesting speciman trees. The regrowing forest will be a nice buffer, might even start to become a winter wind break.

Don't forget about the tall shrubs which can be pruned like a short tree. They certainly will expand your options.

Wow quirky I wish I had a neighbour like that,have fun!

The funny thing is this was the second neighbor to tell me to tell them what to plant. The folks across the street I did an entire landscape plan for them for free, told them exactly where to get everything and what it would cost and a million and a half reasons to actually do it. But the wife tells me they have no money.... something about kids.... blah blah blah. So she tells me her MIL is going to bring them some plants for free to plant, something about bradford pears blah blah blah, crepe myrtle, blah blah blah. I can't let this happen of course so I will be going to the tree farm this w/e to pick up trees to plant there along their house for free (I'm such a nice guy) so that we have trees lining our strees (Wait maybe this is for my benefit) and so we don't have to look at the bare back of their house and their pending privacy fence (Oh so this is alllll about me)

Anyway little do they know these folks could be charging me to plant in their yard LOL.

This next door neighbor does get a little shade from my trees but I've established some other needs of hers. I know she'd like to reduce the sq footage to mow. They never use the back yard but if they did they'd realize that there is quite an audience. She likes the view so I wouldn't want to block it. Not that it isn't going to be blocked anyway. She wants some corner accent stuff.

I think I will put a mass of viburnum and serviceberry allong the property line so there's some privacy but nothing to interfere with QQ's collection. Then a bit further in we'll do some real serious shade-makers. Then on the other property line we'll do a low growing evergreen mixed shrub planting. Some Nelly R Stevens a some white pines, red cedar or arborvitae.

Sounds like you should be a pro landscaper!

Very cool! I think that's great that you have that kind of relationship with your neighbors, especially reading all the threads on GW about "hostile neighbors" (as my arborist friend calls them). They obviously respect your opinion.

Mixed borders of large shrubs/small trees along the property lines sound good. They will never get too big. Did you mean you're putting White Pines in the low growing mixed border? They aren't low growing unless you prune them vigorously and that won't work forever. Maybe you could mix broadleaf evergreens in with the shrubs on the other side.

Does she have a need for shade along the south/southwest side of the house? Maybe a nice deciduous tree or two.

And if it were me, I would choose primarily natives, of course.

Quirky:

All this says as much about you as your neighbors. You must know your trees, make wonderful selections, and generally inspire trust in others. Come move in next to me--and you can help me with my new 6 acres! Yes!

--Spruce

Since you're in the south, I certainly recommend a longleaf pine or two. You can plant them and forget them because they send out deep roots as soon as they go in the ground.

I also like Acer barbatum (Florida maple), they have really good fall color. Scarlet oak is another nice tree.

Hey, this looks like a good time and place to put out a strong plea to the universe and everybody on here:

Please come buy up all the property around me and plant good trees! Make the yards beautiful. Inject some aesthetic sense here and love and respect for Nature. Be friendly clean normal decent neighbors. Plllllease!

Lots of ponds and water features needed. Used to be here but were bulldozed, very sad. When they were here the frogsong was so loud and persistent it was like being out in the country, very enjoyable. So come out here and restore this once-paradise around us.

I'd know I'd died and gone to heaven ...

BTW I planted 2 Nellie R Stevens hollies and they are very pretty and provide nice foliage and color to look at in wintertime. Look good all the time actually.

Just don't plant anything you don't want eventually hanging over into your yard!

Two alternating rows of Loblolly Pines and Nellie R Stevens spaced as a filler, in front of the clean trunks, which the pines will create as they mature, is what I helped a friend plant along her back property line for more privacy. She likes the effect that planting makes, and considers it her evergreen backdrop for future plantings of some nice deciduous ornamentals and shorter speciman trees and shrubs.

We only needed an about 15 feet deep area to create that backdrop affect.

You are very blessed to be given the permission to plant what ever you want to see growing on your neighbors's properties. If over time, most of the trees growing on your street have been planted by you, it would be nice for the city to name, the street after you. Since many of the trees you plant could out live you, all those trees could end up being a nice legacy you leave the neighborhood.

On another note; about the neighbor who claims she can not afford to pay for the trees, she also will likely not take care of them, or value them like you do. People who do don't consider it high enough on their priority list to work for something or at least spend the money for something, most generally, never hold much value for such things. At least, it is good that you will benefit from that neighbor's trees; especially if you find that the neighbor also is not "able" to give the trees, which you end up purchasing and planting, the care they could need for the following three years.

Plant montezuma cypress!

It sounds as though you should plant whatever you want to look at, while at the same time, being mindful of what could have an impact on your yard, as far as future shade, blocking your views, re-seeding, etc.. I would certainly go for shade from the SW for her, a mix of low growing shrubs and small trees, maybe evergreen, with flowers and fruits, and fall color, that won't block views for the property lines, and things that enhance the view from both your yard and her house.

I am thinking of things like magnolia species, bald cypress, beech (purple or green), a grouping of deciduous magnolias, deciduous hollies, various spring flowering understory trees and shrubs such as Juneberry, fringe tree, itea, calycanthus or redbud, the more rare species dogwoods (pagoda, gray, red- or yellow-twig), various viburnums, summer to fall flowering plants such as vitex, franklinia, stewartia, gordonia, sourwood, abelias, caryopteris, clethra, bottlebrush buckeye, woody sages, camellias, witch hazel or native azaleas, etc.. I could go on, but....

Keep in mind that someone will have to water things, whether her or you. Setting up an easy watering system of temporary drip hoses around trees (for 2-3 years) might be a time and effort saver for all concerned, as connecting a hose, or two, to the end of a run of drip hose is relatively easy, while dragging hoses from tree to tree and spot to spot is a pain! Making beds or berms, and groups of trees, which you mulch, will both pull the look together and unify the yard, and make watering issues simpler. As I am sure you have already thought of...

> it would be nice for the city to name the street after you.

Quirkyquercus Street? LOL

> the neighbor who claims she can not afford to pay for the trees, she also will likely not take care of them, or value them like you do.

That is normally true, but maybe not when there are kids involved; sometimes there just isn't money for anything, no matter how much you try to squeeze.

QQ, good for you. I agree with others that you'd better set up an easy watering system. The neighbor who doesn't use her back yard will not see the young trees drying out back there.

All excellent ideas. I went to a tree farm in NC today and came back with too many trees! I'll write more later I have a terrible headache