Roots don't always damage pavement...the roots of some trees just sort of go under it. (I'm not sure if it's because the roots of these trees are thin or because they are deep) I find it's mostly large deciduous trees that damage pavement. In my personal experience pine trees never seem to damage pavement. I've also seen apple trees and pear trees growing close to pavement without bothering it.

Narrow trees tend (with some exceptions) to have arrow roots. So, I'd think Eastern Red Ceder wouldn't damage the pavement (since it is narrow and conical. I also heard someone on the internet saying crabapple trees seldom put out surface roots.

Supposedly White Oak and Butternut put out taproots (roots straight down)

Here is a link that might be useful: Urban Tree Suggestions

This post was edited by edlincoln on Thu, Aug 22, 13 at 19:46

no pic..no opinion...

ken

I vote for metasequoia in front of a light color house or metasequoia ogon in front of a darker background.

Pic is my Ogon. The regular tree is in the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Good pics of mature limbed up metasequoia

{{gwi:420803}}

{{gwi:420804}}
sorry about the shaky pic

{{gwi:420805}}

{{gwi:420807}}

best would be an airview, but since I cant do that, this is what I got.

As you can see the lawn needs some work too, so I plan on having a sprinkler system installed.

I'm not looking to have the place look like a country club, but presentable would be nice!

there are no moderators to delete your other posts ...

i am bumping this one back up.. since it has the pics ...

with the maple still there.. its really hard.. to get a flavor of what to suggest ....

perhaps you should get removal done this fall ...

and worry about new trees come spring planting season ....

i see you are going with irrigation.. but i cant figure out.. if you are replacing the walkway????

ken

Yes, the tree will be taken out and walkway replaced. The walkway is actually what's prompting the tree removal. The tree is tearing up the current one as you can see.

It'll at least be set up for irrigation under the driveway, whether or not I do it now will depend on finances.

Take the money you were going to use for the irrigation system, and do something useful with it, maybe hire a designer. For the typical lawn in this general area, the biggest problem is scalping, not water.

The usual thing with a layout like this is to put a tree near the left side of the house, a tree on the other side of the driveway, and a shrub border near the driveway retaining wall.

Thanks for the response. Scalping?

I would recommend Zelkova trees on either side of the sidewalk. You could also use Gingko trees.

I agree with the others though, save the money on the irrigation system and use it for plants instead.

Scalping = mowing the lawn too short

The usual northern grasses should be mowed relatively long - mower blades at the highest setting is usually about right. The longer grass is healthier and stronger because there is more of it to grow longer roots, and it also shades out a lot of lawn weed seeds. It also doesn't need to be mowed as often. The only downside is it can take more horsepower to get a mower through a lush, healthy, thick lawn.

I overthought it:)