It depends a lot on your rainfall. Generally in arid areas, the consensus opinion is that it's best to concentrate the 'greenest' area of lawn, shade trees and so on nearer to your home, and to taper off to dryland plants farther out, because you shouldn't be trying to water things that are far out from your home. It may not be sustainable in the long run.

We dont get a ton of rain but we will have water shares so water is not that much of a problem. We are buying at least 10 acres so this isn't going to be a short lane. The look that we want is all of the trees to be the same the whole way up our lane. i would like to do maybe an oak but didn't know if the acorns would be a problem on the road. What trees would you suggest?

Some oaks would be good. The Burr Oak grows narrow at first but eventually spreads and gets huge (as do the acorns). Gambel's Oak is often described as scrubby, which is how it often grows in the wild, but with regular water it will grow into a nice medium (30'?) size spreading tree. You'd be creating a squirrel habitat with these trees; don't know how you feel about that...

There's also Hackberries, a large and a medium. The big one I think is just called the common Hackberry, and it's 50-60 footer eventually. The other is the Western Hackberry, again maybe a 30-35 footer eventually. These might be worth considering because they tend to grow somewhat like elms, spreading at the top like you want.

There are some Honey Locusts ("Gleditzia") you could check out. There's one called Sunburst that has yellow new leaves in contrast with the green older leaves; a whole row of them would be spectacular for a couple months in summer. Some of these have thorns, some have the 'beanpod' litter, and some don't, so check on that. These aren't as high-crowned as some others.

And there's maples. Sugar maple would probably do well, and grows moderately to a medium-large tree. There is also the fast-growing Silver Maple and some hybrids of it; these can be good trees in some cases but are prone to a lot of breakage. Rocky Mountain Maple would be a better-adapted medium size tree. Bright orange color in the Fall with the Sugar Maple, yellow with RM Maple.

These are all IMO reasonably well-adapted trees that don't need TOO much water. If you have irrigation water you can grow many others, but the ones I mentioned could go a couple weeks or more without water, even in the heat of summer.

You should buy the Sunset 'Western Garden Book'; it's an encyclopedia of plant information, but unlike most garden books, it's written by people who take into consideration the aridity, intense sunshine of higher altitudes, and other climate factors of the western U.S.

Thank you so much for the great response. I will look into all of those trees. I will definetaly get that book too!

If anyone else has suggestions let me know!

Hi, I lined my lane quite a few years back with Poplar, and Elm trees. Very fast growing trees. Also I believe Willow will grow in Utah, they are also fast growing and make for a fine break and lots of shade

I'd like to second the vote for the honey locust. The hackberry also may be the best choice for a dense canopy but I'm not as familiar with this tree or the oaks.

Give some thought to Russian Olives. They are tough and very pretty with a fragrant bloom. The olives shouldn't cause much trouble falling into lane.

And, crabapples may not be large enough for your lane but there are some taller varieties. Tough and beautiful. Once again there'll be fruit fall but most types do not have large apples and if they do - some are very tasty.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: Guide for Landscape Trees in Utah

Don't know about utah, but here in new mexico Russian Olive is an invasive species. I second the hackberry suggestion.

I'm in Utah, and I'm really enjoying my sycamore tree. It's a fast grower, which I know you don't especially need, but I think I would get impatient waiting for oaks to grow over my lane. It could be 15 years before you get the look you want, while the sycamores could do it in 5-8 years.

Once concern about maples is chlorosis -- the leaves turn pale yellow and start to burn because they can't take up the iron in our alkaline soils. I have three 'Autumn Blaze' maples on my property, and they're supposed to be resistant to chlorosis. Two are fine, and one is somewhat chlorotic. I believe the 'green' maples (those that don't get red leaves in the fall) are better in resisting chlorosis (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

As far as I've seen, sycamores don't get chlorosis here. They're really a great tree.

Another tree that I really like and is doing well here is the lacebark elm (ulmus parvifolia). This is also called a Chinese elm, but I find that people around here confuse Chinese elm with Siberian elm, which is an enormous weed tree in this area. So, if you mention Chinese elm to Utahns, you'll find some who think it's the weed tree, but it's not. It's also a fast grower, has a graceful shape, and has cool-looking bark. If you want it on a lane, though, you would want to prune off low-hanging branches, because it can take on a semi-weeping shape, and those dangling branches could get in the way.

By the way, crabapples do wonderfully here and have a wonderful spring bloom. Mine are growing fairly fast, but I know they won't get really big. I also like golden rain trees (kolreutiera), which have a great yellow blossom in June. There is an old part of Salt Lake City that has streets lined with these trees, and they look great.

Where in SLC is that. I would love to see it. Thanks for all of the advice.

My advice would be to avoid silver maples like the plague. My silver maple costs more to keep healthy than the rest of my lawn.

Other than that, my general comment would be to use native trees if possible, and to avoid the fast growing trees, because they tend to break up more easily.

I second the negative opinions about silver maples.

I've got one that has been severely chlorotic, and I think I may have finally gotten it to be relatively healthy. I shudder to think what it would take to keep many of them healthy.

I would also avoid the fast growing trees, because faster growing trees tend to be soft and more prone to breaking.

Hi, I am not on here very often, but yeah, it's gardening season, and I am psyched.
My neighbor planted a bunch of "Service Berry". Is that the same as "Hackberry". I really like them, they dont get as wide, but pretty tall, and change color in the fall.
Bianchi

Tonyarose,

Sorry to be slow responding. I'm trying to remember the streets in SLC with all the Golden Rain trees. I think it's around 1300 East and 1300 South, but it could have been closer to the university, around 300 South. I just emailed the SLC urban forestry dept., and I'll post here if they tell me where it is. They were very impressive when blooming in June!

You'll also find these trees at the LDS church conference center in downtown SLC. They also have quite a few Chinese Elms, which I mentioned in an earlier post.

Update:

I got an email back from SLC's urban forestry dept, and here's what they said about the streets lined with Golden Rain trees:

"There are several areas in town that have Golden Rain trees but the easiest to identify for you is 700 E from South Temple to 900 S both sides of the road and continuing from 900 S to 1300 S on the east side of the street."

You should check it out in June, when they are blooming. I can't remember exactly what time in June is best, though.