Thanks everyone. digdig, you make a good point about spreading out the fall color. Many trees just go brown and that's it, but some, like liquidamber and birches have lovely fall color. Rico, sounds like it worked really well for you, congrats! Any chance you can post a photo? (I'm very visually oriented.) The terrain goes over a gentle hill lengthwise ( middle 50 feet), with dry, somewhat rocky soil in the middle, and good loam on either side. That alone will force different planting so I have happy trees on that dry bit. The other side will only be seen if you walk around it. It's not visible from the road or from the neighbors. There are no overhead wires. There are underground utilities that cut across one section. I plant to just plant across it. If they ever need to be dug up, fine. My understanding is that most tree and shrubs roots do not go deep and will not interfere with them 4 feet down. Alyrics, you bring up a good point that I have been debating. Should I just plant some trees and mulch around them 4 feet and do crazy mowing between all of them? Or should I try to do a complete kill of all the grass with roundup and mulch heavily with wood chips? I'm leaning towards the former because it's easier. Although in reality it will probably be weedy for years. Right now I have a small hill of woodchips that I got from the highway cleanup crews after our October surprise snowstorm last year. (2 large dumptrucks full) I'm usually able to get woodchips around here pretty cheaply, so the cost of the mulch won't be an issue, it's more the labor of placing them. Groundcover is out, that is definitely too much work. Any thoughts on the mulch versus mowing versus weeds? Thanks for all your input.

I have just had my power restored after 5 days in the dark due to branches from a neighbor's ash tree hitting the lines (there were 250,000 people in SE Michigan without power early this week). This darn ash has splits in its bark (going upwards) some as deep as 1/2 inch (on a tree whose diameter is only about a foot) and stretching 6-10 inches. It seems to have holes all over the place (I'm assuming from insects of whatever sort) and though it has some bare branches (mostly due to upper shading by the tree) it seems happy as can be. My nieghbor attributes its resistance to the EAB to his occasional spilling of battery acid (among other things) near the trunk (behind his garage). Personally we'd like to see it succumb to EAB or something as it shades a large portion of where I put my raised beds for veggies (it was smaller back then). So, the moral of the story is wish for the tree to die, curse it regularily and contemplate its demise regularily and it will survive, thrive and be just fine. ~Chills

I second, very strongly, the above comment about Plane trees. The disease is anthracnose. There was some discussion of the merits of an alle and problems with monoculture. There is nothing wrong with an allee as long as it fits your tastes and landscape. They need not be the ultra formal European Alles of Versailles et al. Nor do they need to be a monoculture. You can have a mixed alle of complementary trees. To make it more formal, make sure that you pare up the trees with the same species on the opposite side of the allee. For example a line of trees like this. Incense Cedar, American Linden, English Oak, European Linden, Yellowwood, Red Oak, Repeat as needed. The repetition in the line and on opposite sides of the drive would give the viewer the idea of the allee but also have the variety of form and species that would avoid the monoculture problem.

Ya'll are doing a fine job teaching me about the options and things I need to keep in mind. The house is approx. 75 ft. across the front and 32 ft. front-to-back. I'm guessing here, but my estimate would be that the house is about 20 ft. high, to the peak of the roof. At any rate it's only one story. lol Our neighbor, who lives two houses down, has a beautiful Tulip Poplar with a h-u-g-e canopy. Like was said earlier, it is sitting out in the open so it has had room to expand. This particular tree is more of a cone shape with a very wide base (bottom branches.) Great spot to put a swing for those warm summer nights. Another of my problems is that the Fall Line Freeway will be coming directly in front of the house, adding at least 2 or 3 more lanes of traffic. *SIGH* This is one reason that I would like to have a row of trees close to the roadfront property line. The front yard is about 200 ft. wide so that is a nice amount of room to add a few trees. On the property, we already have a Black cherry (which the freeway will probably get), 5 remaining Pecan trees, 2 Pink Dogwood, and a 50+ year old Southern Magnolia. Then we have shrubs/bushes such as several 6 ft. high Azaleas and Nandina (it's gotta go!) Mom has many native plants in her flower gardens including Cherokee Roses, Leather-Flower vine (reticulata), Money plant, Wild Ginger/"Little Brown Jugs", and loads of other plants.