People rake leaves? Stop the madness!

How small are we talking here? Need to give use some height limitations before we go anywhere.

About 30 feet high with the same spread.

Well if one isn't going to rake leaves you probably need something that will need minimal pruning and watering during drought.

Get yourself a Maackia amurensis

What about a serviceberry - they don't get bigger than 30 feet and the leaves are small enough that people wouldn't notice them much on the ground.

My maackia, although a nice, smaller tree with good form does not cast but a very light shade.

Rakeless? How does one do that with a live tree?

Even if a broadleaved evergreen with leaves year-round, they are shed eventually, some over a prolonged time. Same for needled conifers.

Apparently there's a market out there for larger fake trees. You know, like the fake Christmas trees, but bigger.

Somebody needs to get right on this. $$$$ ;)

Consider one of the honey locusts (Gleditsia triacathus). There are several varieties that grow low enough for the site you describe. The leaflets are small and will get lost in the lawn when the fall, The shade is not dense but will help cool you on a hot summer day.

Get the thornless or you will be sorry walking/mowing under them or it.

You can see its fine and airy qualities in the pic. Agree the falling leaves are not an issue. It does produce volunteers more than most trees, and it has already needed pruned to clear electric lines to my g'houses. It has been in site at least since 2004.

This post was edited by calliope on Sun, Jul 6, 14 at 8:45

Agree -- honeylocust requires no raking. Only issue is it needs room -- my thornless is 35' tall & 25' wide in its 10th season.

Edit: Seems your space requirements preclude honeylocust.

This post was edited by beng on Mon, Jul 7, 14 at 9:48