Nice trees for shade?

[monica123]

I am looking for some nice trees for shade to plant in my back yard. Do you have any suggestions? What is your favorite tree?

 

[mois25]

Look for the ones that do not easily shed off the leaves and also have a fast maturity rate because I assume you do not want to wait for three decades for your shade to develop.

 

[abeja_reina_1989]

I personally like spruce trees. Like the previous poster said, you need something that won't shed as much etc. Spruce are so beautiful and they get HUGE, which is perfect for shade

 

[monica123]

How fast do Spruce grow? I do not want to wait 50 years to get good shade like with my Willow Tree so I would love to have some usable shade in like max 5 years.

 

[KennyV]

Check around in your area to see what species do well... :smile:KennyV

 

[JDgreen]

I am looking for some nice trees for shade to plant in my back yard. Do you have any suggestions? What is your favorite tree?

I love sugar maples, scarlet maples, and sycamores. They are reasonably fast growing, quite hardy, and retain leaves well.

DO NOT plant SILVER maples if you have a lot of wind, they grow much faster than the other types but are often called "soft maple" because they fracture easily.

 

[lizard]

Trouble with growing trees is the lawn will suffer and it will be bare around the tree.

 

[touree]

What the previous poster has said is true but you will need trees anyway. I am also of the view that the particular climatic conditions of the place you reside in might help in choosing the type of trees to grow.

All I know about Spruce trees is that you should avoid planting them near tall trees.

 

[RobertBrown]

How fast do Spruce grow? I do not want to wait 50 years to get good shade like with my Willow Tree so I would love to have some usable shade in like max 5 years.

5 years? But you live in Canada, trees don't grow fast in Canada. My neighbor has a sycamore that is growing very quickly, it's been in the ground about 7 years and it's around 25-30 feet with a 20 foot drip line but we have a 9 month growing season here. I would consider a tree like that a medium size shade tree.
Your going to have to be patient. A tree that grows that fast is going to be non native and probably prone to disease or droping limbs, or fall on your car, or worse your house.

 

[monica123]

Where I live is very windy on a regular basis, so trees that are not hardy would not work in my yard. I have some Ash and Alder in my yard already and some Spruce, but they have been here for years as well.