Tuliptree, Liriodendron tulipifera is a great fast-growing shade tree. It does shed a few small limbs, but nothing to big enough to damage anything. Another choice might be one of the faster growing oaks: Scarlet oak is Quercus coccinea and pin oak is Quercus palustris. Red maple (Acer rubrum 'October Glory') is fast, but it has a lot of surface roots so it is harder to garden under. This a good time to research - Trees Atlanta is having a sale this Saturday. See link below. They will have some trees that you can't usually find in nurseries. They will have mostly natives and some non-natives. Here is a link that might be useful: Tree Sale this saturday, Oct 8th

I have loved the design of that house since you first showed us the pictures of it. It looks great with all the plants in it. I know what you mean about it seeming big empty and then all of a sudden it is full!

Hi I converted the screenroom into a shadehouse around 25 years ago and also built two smaller ones from wood which Wilma removed lol. One almost insoluable problem has been heat build up even in winter.. The longest lasting materials has been aluminum framework with vinyl lattice. Has proven to be the strongest,most decay resistant. Have tried all kinds of materials as a covering. The most adaptable has been frost cloth as a partial covering and then only when temps fall below freezing. You will be amazed at the heat gain the next day after a cold front passes. Putting it on and off is a real pain and storing the stuff the 95 percent of the year when not needed is tough also. Everything I've tried degraded over time even fiberglass panels. During the last remodel I went back to vinyl lattioe with hardware cloth no shadecloth or screen, using vines which can be cut back during winter I keep a heated 150 gallon aquarium for the primary heat source which works well down to about 35. It's connected to the 1000 gallon outdoor pond and a waterfall distributes the heat as well as boosts the humidity. One tip I learned the hard way don't plant ANYTHING directly in the ground. Use pots that can be manuvered around as the "jungle " develops. I planted pine cone ginger and heliconia and have been unable to control them or get rid of them lol Good luck with yours . Not sure why but a shadehouse works magic .lol Plants seem to grow twice as fast inside lol gary

They will indeed get frosted. We are supposed to get freezing rain tomorrow. But they are tough and it won't hurt them. It does give me hope that spring will return even though our winter has been relatively mild (again) this year. The normal used to be when it got cold, it stayed cold and we got snow fairly often. It's not like that anymore. It stays warmer longer and we get a lot less snow. I'm not complaining but it's not what I know winter to be when I was growing up.