Do you intend to continue using the fire pit? If so, I would discourage you planting any tree that would overhang it. However, disregarding that, I would say that one of your best choices in a deciduous tree would be a Yellowwood (Cladrastis lutea aka Cladrastis kentukea). Hardy to Zone 4. It would fit the space without overwhelming the house as it got older. Good fall color and shade. It is also a great flowering tree. The flowers look like white wisteria flowers. The seeds are in small pea pods and do not require much cleanup. This is a deep rooted tree that will not give you sidewalk or foundation problems. They are native to the Ohio valley area. http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/plant-finder/plant-details/kc/a270/cladrastis-kentukea.aspx For an evergreen choice I would recommend a fir. In my area the Whit Fir (Abies concolor) would be our go to fir but in Michigan there may be others that are better for the area. The fir is a nice conical tree that would give you the same shape as the blue spruce you lost but is a better behaved tree. Blue spruce tend to get scraggy and sparse as they age. Firs do not. White firs will want to branch low to the ground like the spruce but will not spread a far wide as the spruce. http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/plant-finder/plant-details/kc/c201/abies-concolor.aspx Because the tree would be close to your house, I would be worried about the shallow roots that most evergreen have. They tend to raise sidewalks and damage foundations. You can encourage a deeper root system by keeping the root zone moist but this is not going to overcome the nature of the tree to have shallow roots. There is a relatively deep rooted evergreen that you might consider. That would be the Incense Cedar (Libocedrus decurrens aka Calocedrus decurrens). This is a native of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. They have fronds like Arborvita rather than needles like other evergreens. This tree has deep roots and would not be a problem for sidewalks and foundations. It can get quite tall, 50 feet our so, but does not spread more that 10 or 15 feet in cultivation. It is very drought tolerant and can handle large snow loads. http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/plant-finder/plant-details/kc/a156/calocedrus-decurrens.aspx I hope this helps.

Not to deter anyone, but be very careful about using lava rock... it tends to hold onto a lot of moisture. Your best bet is to do a little research on the different types of materials used in hydroponics, semi-hydroponics, and bonsai growing. Not all rock types are equal. Some will absorb more moisture, and others less. And just to be sure the concept is understood, adding large particles to tiny ones doesn't really help in the long run... the tiny ones quickly fill in the spaces between the larger ones, which defeats the whole purpose... aeration. The concept is to keep the particle size relatively uniform, or as uniform as possible. From my reading and experience, a good size is approximately from dime to BB size, keeping larger and tinier particles out of the equation. Some materials may need to be broken down into smaller pieces, and some may need to be screened out to avoid the dust and smaller particles. But by keeping a uniform size to your medium particles, you're promoting better and faster drainage, and more even moistening of the medium. Fungus gnats like a wet organic environment, so by watering more sparingly, you're not giving them what they like. They go elsewhere. Granite chips can be found where poultry supplies are sold for farmers. The little chips are grit fed to poultry for aid in digestion. There are other items that can be substituted, such as turface or some oil dry products... but always be sure that the product you use is inert and doesn't break down. All the items used to make this type of medium are discussed over in the Container Gardening Forum, just in case anyone is interested in learning more. It's a fascinating subject! It took me almost a year to locate all the right ingredients for my medium. I couldn't find the same brands or the same exact items that were recommended. It took a lot of searching and a lot of reading... and I asked a lot of questions! But I think I have finally found all the ingredients that make the perfect mix for use in my climate and growing environment. Improper watering is the number one cause of death and disease in plants. It sounds silly, but learning how to properly water your bulbs can save you a lot of grief, and it's one of the first things a gardener should learn. Even the most high-tech mediums can't save your plants if you constantly "kill them with kindness". I'm attaching a link to a great Bonsai website packed full of really good information. Be sure to read the pages on soils, watering... oh, what the heck... read the whole thing! It's a very educational site. What I've done is study how plants and mediums and moisture behave together within a container environment, and I've melded together information about bonsai, hydroponics, succulent growing, and bulb growing... and I've come up with a planting and care regimen that works for my environment and the plants I grow. It didn't happen overnight, just like I couldn't find all my medium ingredients right away... but by continuing to research, and asking questions of those who are successful, and learning from my mistakes, I think I'm on the right path in container gardening. And since gardening is for sharing, I only hope that something I share will help another gardener to find their own path to successful container gardening. Happy Gardening! Here is a link that might be useful: Bonsai Basics - Soil, Watering, Etc...

Wow, thanks for the recommendations to all of you. I do like the idea of Ribes, it has flowers similar to fuschia and the birds will love it. Many of your other recommendations I planted at my parents' home during the last few years, so I can easily make cuttings. I might have to grow some of those full sun species in pots up on our balcony where some spots get full sun year round. Carpenteria may be nice, too. Some white to brighten up the shady spot. Calycanthus is a nice flower morphology, and I love the fragrance of it. Yerba Buena would be a nice groundcover under the trees by the street, and again, I like that it has fragrance. It will like the fog in Summer, too. Phacelia campanularia is one of my favorite flowers, the blue color is amazing. I only worry about the kids in the neighborhood touching it, it gave me a pretty bad dematitis a few months ago when I collected seeds from them. I've been trying to estimate how much sun that area will get in the peak of summer, in June. I think one strip will be filtered/dappled shade, and half of one will be in direct sunlight for a few hours when the sun is highest in the sky. The Las Pilitas site is basically my encyclopedia for getting info about plants, especially their hummingbird and butterfly plant lists. That, google image searches and the online Jepson manual. And even though they aren't natives, I've always wanted to grow Hellebores, so maybe that will go in somewhere too. Thanks again, and happy gardening.

Personally, I'm not going to rake anyone over the coals for what they do. When I see the Villages running their sprinklers on a Monday morning while it's raining, I can't rightly blame someone else for wanting to water their lawns when they feel they need it. While I don't agree with what the park owners here do, I'm not going to picket their yard with signs berating them for messing up the aquifers and water table. What would be the point? In the case of the Villages, they (the management) claim that they only run the sprinklers while it's raining if the water retention ponds are in danger of flooding, but I've been in the area when it's been raining, the sprinklers were running and the water retention ponds and Lake Sumter were 'dangerously' low (Lake Sumter has been low for some time now). I would be more likely to raise racket over their practices than I would over an individual land owner's. But again, what would the point be? Money rules all. In the case of the water management districts, I don't think it's just the water use they're worried about. It's the fertilizer use. In my latest issue of Florida Gardening, they mention that a study was being done to see which type of neighborhoods were more efficient in water/fertilizer usage by the types of road-side they had, swales or curbs. They ultimately had to remove one particular neighborhood from the study because a single person was so over-fertilizing her Rose Garden that it made the numbers sky-rocket, suggesting there was something wrong with the measuring equipment, but it was her gardens that was doing it. For a further example: The park owners here, while they run their sprinklers almost non-stop, they don't fertilize, ever. So they're really not causing too much chemical run-off problems. But then you look at the Villages (corporate, not individual home-owners), they have maintenance crews out there every week constantly spraying fertilizers and pesticides. So not only are they over-watering, but they're constantly sending chemicals down to the water-table. But I think their over-watering is going to eventually bite them in the tuckus. Last summer they had two, maybe three, sink-holes open up. They got lucky as the two that I know of opened under retention ponds. It's only a matter of time before another sinkhole swallows a home or two. Once that starts happening, America's Friendliest Home Town could start dwindling in residents. Plus, I believe that if you tell someone they shouldn't do something, they will do it anyways, and quite possibly more often, just out of spite.