I understand your neighborhood is doing pretty much the same thing in creating a canopy. I like the idea. It's different, but if everybody goes along with it, it should work. Sort of an island for bird life in the city. Trees, when planted properly, and irrigated when needed, grow surprisingly fast. I wouldn't worry about overplanting, you can always edit or limb up. The thing I wouldn't do would be to plant trash trees. They get in the way all too quick. Nor would I plant trees that can't handle shade. Here's what I did about 25 years ago. Some would say it's over planted. Those are the people who look at each plant as an individual, rather than the plants as a composition. Their trees are arranged as if they were knick-knacks on a shelf. To each his own, of course.

Thank you for the response, malcolm! When I joined this forum I had requested email notification of responses but didn't get one, so I apologize that I haven't checked back here in a while. I've begun installing the trees at 15' (minimum) separation. My minneola is only about 20' from the Valencia it's planted next to, but I'm guessing that will be sufficient and I can always prune the canopy if it gets out of hand. (It is my understanding that pruning citrus is undesirable and only dead wood should be removed; does that sound like correct information?)

I'm going to do something like the first pic luckyblueeye posted above. A little conversation area, 2 chairs and an ottoman. When you say you like the table long ways....do you mean short end of table to short end of island? I think it looks a little odd but I don't know what else to do. I was thinking I'd get a large round table but I don't think I'll have enough walk room on either side of the table since I want to have my hutch and something else decorative on the other wall. I love having the table closer to the kitchen area though.

We have actually done this. The developer of the subdivision planted sycamores on both sides of the street about 10 feet from the curb in the 60's. Ours succumbed to the blight they get and we had it taken down and the stump ground. Of course all the roots were all over the front yard. We have clay soil also. I moved the planting spot in from the street and over from the lot line about 10 feet each way. I bought a willow oak from Home Depot in October of 2001. It was not a big one at all, maybe 10 to 15 feet. Today it is about 55 feet. Be sure to dig the planting hole twice as wide as the root ball, but do not dig it deeper. If you dig it deep and fill in with soft dirt, any water will run past the tree roots and pool at the bottom of the hole. You want the flare to be slightly above ground level. I used those tree rings made out of recycled tires for the first few years, so we didn't have to mow around it. The only problem we had with roots was, as they decayed, mushrooms sprouted where they were. Those are long gone now though.