I typed out an answer. Then I looked to make sure what I meant, and you'd said the same thing... so go with your gut!

Towards the front and the fence. With a reasonable radius around it. I wouldn't want it to be something I had to mow around and a "corner" would cut out half of that possibility. I loved my house with a tree in that corner. I really liked looking out of the living room window and seeing it blow in the breeze. Enjoy your new tree!

Be sure it's not planted near the sewer line.

I like the idea of shading the living room, which I am guessing is behind the two windows on the right. But I think I would center the tree in that section of the yard so that the shade would help cool the house. Of course, it would help if I knew the exposure of that front yard and the climate and state or province you live in.

*The sewer line runs along the driveway, to the far right.

*This side of the house and the two livingroom windows....is East facing. Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Honey Locusts get very big....50+ feet tall.....with a very large spread. It grows relatively rapidly in the first 15 years. Planting a tree that size in the front yard may dwarf the house and lot. I would revisit the choice of tree if the lot is as small as it appears in the picture. Are there any overhead power lines to consider?

They are a MESSY tree and maintaining clean gutters is a challenge. Those small leaves get everywhere.

I grew up with one in the backyard. It still stands and is over 50 years old.

found these pictures

http://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A0LEVvldOKBVKBQAp8wPxQt.;ylu=X3oDMTE0MzM1bzNhBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDRkZYVUkzOV8xBHNlYwNzYw--?p=Honey+Locust+Tree&fr=sfp&hspart=iry&hsimp=yhs-fullyhosted003

I did own 2(down to 1), my neighbor owns one....24 years ago we planted them. They are still pretty small.....maybe 15' tall 10' wide......we have harsh winters. They have very little time to grow, then drop their leaves and go dormant. We both LOVE them!

I believe that shading the right side is more important. Something else you might want to consider (although thinking far, far ahead can make a person goofy), the tree will eventually shade that side of the house so much that whatever foundation plantings you have will go bye-bye due to lack of light during the growing season.

Stay away from driveways, sewer, and any concrete and foundation because a tree that gets very large will have a large spread out root system that could affect negatively those items. Visually it would look more appealing centered. I would center it in that side if it were mine and cleared the things mentioned.

Also be careful of sprinkler system lines.

The company doing the planting says they carry sprinkler parts and can make any repairs on the scene, but there are no heads in the middle, that either of us can remember seeing...so no lines. :0) (yes it works, we turned it on, it's just been awhile since we saw the sprinklers in action )

I make statements not knowing the orientation of your house with respect to east-west. The tree is deciduous (Looses leaves in Fall) and will eventually get tall (50 ft). and you have limited distance between the house and street. Plant the tree as close to the street as you can get (or at least 30 ft from the house) and position it to cast an afternoon shade on the main part of the house. From mid-June to mid-July, the sun is at its most northerly position in the sky. At 2pm, the tree's shadow will point in a southeast direction, the amount will vary depending on where you are in the US. Go out in mid-afternoon and look at shadows cast by other trees to gauge shadow direction and plan your tree location accordingly.

A tree that casts a shadow on the driveway is nice to have if one parks a car there in the summer.

In the winter, the leaves fall off and any shadow the tree casts on the house is minimized. In winter, exposure to the sun is desired. This sometimes affects the choice between and evergreen and deciduous.

Determine where your water and sewer lines are. Do not plant a tree over these. Go into the basement and find where these lines exit the house and then go outside and locate where the water shutoff valve is on the lot line. That'll give you a good idea where the water line is and a fair idea where the sewer line is, Usually, both are in the same trench with the sewer line deeper than the water line. The water shut off cap should be about flush with the ground, but may be buried under the turf. A metal detector is handy for finding it, but most people do not have such. If you need one, see if you can borrow one or maybe you have a friend who has one. If one of your friends is a rock-hound, contact him. Very likely, he will know someone who has a metal detector. Your village engineer can locate it for you.

If you have underground utilities (electric, gas, phone, etc.), avoid these. The tree can be closer to these lines than the sewer. Tree roots will seek out regions that have more moisture than the average surrounding soils and will invade a sewer line that is seeping.

One caveat: If the tree is too close to traffic lanes, its limbs may grow to interfere with vehicles and then you have the responsibility to clear these limbs away. If the tree eventually interferes with an overhead power line, the power company will trim it back, but you may not like how they will shape the tree. They are in the business of clearing away line hazards and not ascetics.

One of my favorite trees is maple. However, not all maples have good fall color and sugar maples are slow growing. Silver maple is not recommended. Its fall color is lousy, but most all, it has a root habit that is not nice in a lawn. For the first 5 to 10 years, this habit is hidden and then the wind anchor roots appear at the surface of the lawn. These will expand and eventually, half of the root will be above ground interfering with the lawnmower and tripping the unwary. This circle of exposed roots expands every year. Also, silver maples take a long time to drop all its leaves and you may find yourself doing the final raking in late November with snow in the air. Its sure to drop its last load after the city leaf crew has quit for the season.

I do not recommend box alder (maple family). It is a fast growing tree, again with poor fall color. Its a "trashy' tree continually dropping small dead limbs. Its a weak tree and tends to develop large horizontal branches that may not support its own weight. The wood is brittle and the tree tends to break off large limbs during wind storms to preserve the main trunk. It is surprisingly hardy, sort of the weed of the maple family. Its main good feature is that its leaves when dropped in fall do not create a big mess. The leaves tend to shrivel up and break into little pieces. These are easily mulched with a lawn mower eliminating the need to rake in the fall. Even a non-mulching mower will work with a bit more effort.

A Norway maple is a very nice tree, but has disadvantage too. Norways have very large and substantial leaves, These tend to mat and smother the grass over winter. These have to be removed in fall. A Norway tree will grow at a nominal pace for the first 15 years of life and then it takes a spurt and in 5 more years becomes a very large tree.

Jem, the tree species has already been determined. But I'm surprised to see your recommendation of silver and Norway maples. In much of the country, both are considered trash trees.

Nicole, in many states, it is required by law that utilities be marked by those utility companies. Here's the universal information for "Call Before You Dig".

Regulations require them (the utility companies) to respond in a couple of days to a request for marking. Call on Monday and all of your undergrounds will be clearly marked promptly.

A word of warning about watering.....you shouldn't rely solely on a sprinkler system to give a newly planted tree the amount of water it needs, not the amount nor the frequency. You also shouldn't flood your whole lawn to accommodate the new tree, planted in a very stressful time of year.

My specifications for every tree planting project has always been that trees be watered separately by hose, Treegator, or similar. How much water, how often, and how long depends on soil type, drainage, climate, rainfall, tree species, size of tree, and other factors. 2.5 inches is a big tree.....it will have a tough time acclimating in the summer months.

Don't let them ammend the soil with a single thing when they plant, nothing. Add a two or three inch layer of mulch in a generous swath around the tree but don't pile it up the trunk.

Here's a link to the ISA website for consumer education. Scroll down to Planting A Tree...........New Tree Planting for some basic, excellent information.

If you have any questions or concerns, any at all, please let me know. I like it when tree plantings are successful.

rhizo_1.

Please re-read my post. I DID NOT recommend the silver and box elder maples. Recommended AGAINST the Silver and Box Elder. I was neutral on the Norway, neither for nor against. I merely described properties of the Norway leaving it to the owner to decide about that tree.

I had a Norway removed a couple of year ago. It got too big and was starting to cause roof problems on my garage. It had a couple of limbs that stretched over the garage and some of its leaves began to touch the roof promoting algae growth on the shingles. I feared that it might break in a storm and as I examined the problem, I decided to call the tree specialists to have it removed before I re-roofed the garage and house. The garage is attached. The tree was a nice tree for the first 25 years and then within 5 years, it took a growth spurt and got out of hand. The tree was about 15 ft from the garage, a left over when we had the house built on a lot that had trees on it.

That's part of the story. The Norway was on the property line so I spoke to my neighbor about it telling her that I wanted to remove it, but she did not agree. She liked the tree. It shaded her garage. (Someone else did the raking and fall clean-up.) I could have cut back my half of the tree. However, that seemed a lame idea. That was 7 years ago. The tree grew until it became a problem for her roof also and then her new husband was able to get her agreement to remove the tree. He was having a number of trees removed along the lot line. Some were mulberry and the birds crapping on his cars were ruining the paint plus most of the mulberries fell on their side of the line. They could not walk into the house without tracking in crushed mulberries on their shoe soles. I paid for the removal of the Norway. The problem trees are gone. Guess what. New tree have sprouted along the lot line.

I would not accept a honey locust. When Dutch Elm started devastating my town, the city planted locusts along the parkways, probably because they grow fast and tall (60 feet). The current city forester admits this was a big mistake. The limbs are brittle; the trees require a lot of trimming. I think of them as 'witch trees' for their crooked limbs and the lichen that turns their trunks and limbs a sickly green. Their tiny leaves clog gutters.

Nobody wants a silver maple (including Jemdandy). We had a lovely Norway maple at my childhood home, but that's too big for this application.

Given your east location, shade isn't a priority. Get something ornamental that won't overwhelm that nice little house or invade its sewer line.

You say it's a rental house - does the owner have/want a say in where it's planted?

Jemdandy, sorry...I misread your post. Glad to know that I did.

Not to worry, Nicole....Shademaster is a primo honey locust cultivar, leaps and bounds better than the native trees.

By 'better', I mean sturdy, quite non messy, storm tolerant, and adaptable to a wide range of conditions. They also provide light shade, which allows grass to grow under the branches. Those are some of the characteristics that make Shademaster a desirable yard tree.

This is a male cultivar, and will shed pollen for a week or two.

Shademaster has a nice, natural branch structure, usually only requiring very little structural pruning. That is, as long as the specimen is a good one in the first place.

That's a BIG "if". I've known nurseries happy to sell their culled trees to municipalities wanting to spend as little as possible. Nursery culls are substandard or structurally defective. I see such plants all the time, sadly.

If you know a knowledgeable 'tree person', or if you are yourself, be sure to evaluate the tree for defects. Don't hesitate to refuse that particular specimen if it looks like it could split down the middle or if it has dings and scrapes all over the trunk.

Chessey, Nicole IS the rental owner. I looked up your Shademaster and it does look like a wonderful tree. None of the thorns or mess of a regular locust. That is what I feared when I first read you were choosing a locust. Those thorns are really nasty! But looks like this Shademaster should be really nice. I hope it is a good, healthy tree and becomes an asset to your property!!

Do you have to plant it in the front? I would plant it in the back yard to shade the western sun.

happilady.....the back has a BIG covered porch. I planted 3 dwaft flowering trees with the thought that they could look out the kitchen window and see something "pretty". Then in the rear of the yard is a dog run that they use as a horse shoe pit. Behind the fence is a manicured lawn and pine trees a gardener maintains, with a sidewalk bordering an upscale retirement community. So the rear is "FULL"....

And I'm sooooo happy to see the use of a 'real' tree, rather than one more small, ornamental. Makes me happy to see trees planted in front yards.

rhizo....so would YOU plant it to the right side of the yard?

Nicole...I can't see enough of the real estate to make that decision. I'd want sight lines from several angles plus from the inside. It's a tough decision that YOU will have to make.

Just try to imagine the vertical and horizontal space that the tree will take up in ten or twenty years and plant it where it won't be a problem.

Walk across the street and look at the house from afar.

Lookin' good! Aren't you glad that is over?

Jim....yes! and the nursery checked with the utility company and had a written plat. It was all VERY well planned out by the nursery....and no "problems"! :0) Whew!

That is a very nice size tree and looks very good.

Lovely. It's a very nice tree.....a top drawer specimen, not a disappointing cull. A couple of gallons of water trickled directly into the root ball daily plus the normal irrigation system cycle for follow up, then more water with a hose applied every few days....weaning the tree after a few months, as long as rainfall is adequate.

Remember that it takes quite a bit of water to get through a thick layer of mulch and a dense turf. People often run their irrigation systems for a useless ten or fifteen minutes, which isn't enough to get past a layer of mulch or turf/thatch.

The mulch looks a bit piled up against the trunk and I'd pull that away to expose the trunk flare....today.

What a nice addition to the property!

Thank you to everyone who gave input! I'm thrilled to see it planted! I'm going over there today and pull the mulch back off the trunk.....it was watered in well yesterday. I hope it has a LONG and happy/healthy life!

Nicole, that is a dandy!!! What a beautiful tree. It really looks nice and should add value to the house too. Nice job! I also like how high up the lowest branches are. I hope I can remember the name of that tree for possible future use!! Congratulations!

So, is that a dog in the picture? :)

murraysmom....yes! That's sweet little PD...stands for puppy dog. He's the renters chihuahua. Their sons dogs both visit also....a long haired dachsund and a border collie puppy, YOU KNOW I love animals and that house has a BIG fenced yard.....perfect for pups!! :0)

I love that! They are lucky to have you as owners and allowing them to have their dogs!! Good for you!!

Look all around before planting a tree, will there be power lines it will become a problem and will it fall down on the house,etc.? And it is the right kind of tree for where you live?