Texas redbud? Blackhaw rusty virbinum? Wax Myrtle?sweet olive (slow grower)?

Try natural gardener b
nursery and see what they have to over.

Yaupon holly - actually many hollies would fit the bill, with the added feature that they are evergreen and would hide the view year round. Also, if you want growth to stay below 20' forever you will probably need a large shrub that can be trained as a small tree. Most "real trees" will ultimately get far larger than 20'.

What about a vitex or chaste tree? They do well in the Austin area and can be pruned to a single trunk.

Carla

peach tree!

Loquat. We have the same situation in our yard and planted one from a 1 gallon container 2 years ago. The thing's about 5'-6' tall now. Evergreen too. It has a few brown leaves, but overall pulled throught the winter quite well.

My $.02

I second the loquat, vitex and peach, lol

Do Loquat trees sucker? Are you able to plant under and around them? How does grass do under them?

Mine has never suckered Mel, and the grass is doing fine around it, I have seen different Salvias volunteer under it and they do fine but I didn't want them there, lol

Thanks Jolana!
Hubby read here in the past that they have a terrible smell and the fruit is really messy.

We had an issue with Jujube trees' fruit at our old house and finally decided to just cut it down. So we may end up deciding against it in the end.

We're looking for evergreen trees that don't sucker, that don't have shallow roots so we can plant under them.
We don't really want fruit either. It rots, bees and flies are attracted to it. Its a pain to keep cleaning up under them.

Oh.. and it has to be fast growing too. :) We don't expect to live here as long as we lived in the old house.

Its getting real hard to find that perfect tree. :(

Ligustrum is evergreen, grows fast, not expensive, can trained as a single or multi-trunked small tree.

Also the 'selected' live oaks from nurseries grow pretty fast.

BTW, most years you won't get fruit from Loquats. They only fruit after very mild winters. I've never noticed a smell from the tree.

There is another small tree that is a hybrid Loquat, half Loquat and half something else. It has big shiny leaves and doesn't fruit. Can anyone think of the name of it?

Thanks Roselee, for the info on the loquats.

We've ruled out live oaks (even though we love them!) because they do sucker and you can't plant anything under them except for asian jasmin. (which we detest). For years I swore they didn't sucker.. now I have to admit they do.

You can't walk barefoot through the grass under a live oak. :( It eventually gets just to sticky and gnarly under them.

re: Ligustrum. seems its terribly invasive and seedlings spout everywhere? Have you had issues with this? Some places say its to be avoided due to the incisiveness of it.

The photos sure make it look like a nice little tree though!

Maybe it is the growing conditions here, but I've never had any issues with Ligustrums. In my location it produces VERY few seedlings, it doesn't spread, has no diseases, and is very drought tolerant. I can't think of another tree that could possibly do as good a job as a back fence, very tall, evergreen hedge.

I let the upright leafy branches from the bottom of the tree stay, but it could be trimmed up as a small tree. Maybe with better soil (I have a thin layer of black clay over limestone rock) it might exhibit those qualities mentioned, but not at any of the many places I've lived with it in San Antonio, including the south side.

I remember my grandmother going out and breaking off a little branch for a switch, but don't ever remember her actually using it :-) Not that I ever needed switching ... LOL!

Sometimes I think something gets a negative critique and everybody just goes along with it, because 'such and such' said it without considering the criticism may be deserved only under certain narrow circumstances.

I think the loquat hybrid I was thinking of is 'Sienna Glow' loquat. There is also one called 'Coppertone' loquat.

Here is a link that might be useful: Eriobotrya japonica 'Sienna Glow'

Please don't plant a ligustrum. Very invasive and volunteers everywhere. It's a shame that some nurseries still carry them.

If you're concerned about fruit, yet want something fast growing, Wax Myrtle might be a good bet. Not sure about the suckering though... I think finding something that meets all your criteria might be tough...

I ended up with a loquat from the Natural Gardener here in Austin. I'm very happy with the way it looks in that location! I also bought a Sweet Olive for another location where I don't need a fast growing tree. Loved all the suggestions!

I think you'll be happy with your choices. :^)

For a shrub that's not supposed to like our soils and grow slowly, my Sweet Olives have performed quite well. We planted a row from 1 ga. containers 2 years ago and they're around 4' now.

Hi,

It's been a long while since I've posted, but this is the best resource for Texas gardening! I live in Austin, and my zoysia lawn is still pretty brown. Parts in the back seem to be greening up, but the front grass is still straw-colored! Does zoysia green up slower than St. Augustine or bermuda? Is it really possible that it died in the freezes this winter? There are green shoots at the edges of the lawn and I can see some greenness if I look deep. Maybe it was just such a harsh winter that it's going to take more time than past years? Anything organic that I can do help it green up?

Thanks a lot for any advice,
Jenny

In our previous house where everyone had small backyards and could see right into the back neighbors windows - even over the 6 foot fence, my neighbor planted a row of yaupon hollies as a screen. They worked great for screening the view of the neighbors house. He told me that he looked out their breakfast nook window and looked right at the neighbor who had just walked over to her window to look into her backyard. He said it was kind of weird to make eye contact through the windows like that. That weekend the yaupons were in the ground!