Freshair,
Have you considered a trellis with a vine, placed so it will provide shade during the afternoon drop-off time?
Advantages:
A vine's roots will not bother the water pipes. Careful placement of the trellis supports, ditto.
Much faster shade--some vines could provide shade within a year.
No problem with contact with the bus, or if a tendril did extend to where the bus would catch it, vines bend, don't break and don't scratch buses.
Disavantages: If this strip is not your land, getting permission to erect a structure (trellis). Of course, sometimes it is better to beg forgiveness than ask permission . . . .
Possible vandalism.
You built it, you take care of it. Someone in the neighborhood may volunteer to help erect and maintain the trellis and vine, but don't count on it.
You are kind and thoughtful to try to solve this problem. Best of luck!

Thought about a vine & trellis b/c it solves all of my problems regarding roots and clearance. I just can't think of a way to put something out there in the middle of nothing that won't look out of place. Our front lawn is about 30ft deep from the street, and the foundation beds are only 6-10ft deep from the house. So the trellis (or arbor or tree stump or fence post or whatever else I might erect/place for a vine to grow on) would be miles away from anything else. Nothing to anchor it to visually. Does that make sense? The mailbox is on the property line and the dropoff point is in the center of the property about 25ft away.

In this respect, I suppose I'm limited by my inability to envision something along those lines that might work.

As you mentioned, the h3llstrip is technically easement, hence the water lines and fire hydrants.

Found out today that our clearance code reads 7ft over the sidewalk and 15ft over the road.

~ freshair

freshair - we have Natchez crape myrtles along our h*ll strip. Been there for 20+ years and have had no problems with sidewalk heaving or the underground water system. We had to do annual pruning once they started spreading out significantly over the street, and we still have to prune periodically to keep them up 14' over the street. Next problem is to keep your neighbors' visitors from parking in the shade when the bus is due to drop of the kids. All my neighbors' visitors park in front of my house for the shade. Maybe the city would designate it a bus drop off and mark it so others can't park there.

debndal ~

We've thought of getting orange cones. Now that the boys next door are a little older, they're no longer having the pool parties they had during high school and early twenties. I found out recently that mom is one of those well-they're-going-to-drink-anyway-so-I'd-rather-they-do-it-at-the-house-where-I-know-they're-safe moms, so I'm sure it was the place to be back then. We had to ask them to move their company's vehicles a few times when we first moved here.

Between the mailbox at one edge, the fire hydrant at the other and the bus stop in the middle, we gave up parking in front of our own house almost immediately after moving in.

Our neighbors two doors down have them next to their driveway on the sunny west side & they have great clearance and provide a tremendous amount of shade.

I've thought about crape myrtle and considered it the most practical choice. I was just really really hoping to use something native. May have to bend on this if I don't come up with something else.

~ freshair

Do you have any trees in the front yard?

Is your house one story or two story? It is easier to work with 1 story. Can just grow branches over the roof on 1 story house. 2 story house is another story.

For native trees that is fast growing...

shumard red oak
Mexican white oak - nearly evergreen
Texas Ash
Montezuma cypress - seem evergreen (I recommend 'Nanjing Beauty' from Botany Shop Garden online) - pretty fast grower. Mine grew a couple feet so far this summer despite digging it up in March to a new spot after it had been established.

non-native fast growing trees

shantung maple
Lacebark elm (appears to provide shade in shortest period of time of all the high quality trees) in my young neighborhood. Consider named cultiver though so you know what you're getting. Allee is wide upright spreading. Bosque is more up right.

The only things I can think of that are native and will grow quick enough to provide some shade in a reasonable amount of time, and are not so large as to be a problem in a few years is Southern Wax Myrtle and Yaupon Holly.

If you choose to go with trellis and vine, remember that I have the ultimate fast growing vine: Blue Dawn. It dies in the winter, returns in spring. Has violet blue morning glory flowers and the temperature drops about 15 degrees when you step under its thick foliage. AND I can give you loads of them any time you like.

C, I'll keep that in mind. Fifteen degree drop is pretty impressive & likely hard to beat.

Lou, the clearance issues are over the sidewalk and street. The dropoff point is at the street, 30+ yards from the house. We're looking for something to provide shade while getting the kids off the bus at 3:30pm. When we moved here, we removed the one tree in the front, a hackberry to which I'm allergic. In 2004 we planted red maples, but they haven't done so well - not sick, just not thriving. If I knew in 2004 what I know now about soils and native plants, I'd've picked something entirely different & we might have some meager shade by now. Recently, I planted a yaupon and rusty blackhaw viburnum near the house for visual and wildlife appeal, but they're small and nowhere near providing meaningful shade.

When I talked to our friendly neighborhood Parks guys (about clearance and locally recommended species), he recommended getting a landscaping guy to plant a 45gal somethingorother for quick shade. I suppose he mistook me for one of my fellow local taxpayers who have a much larger discretionary spending budget (read: they can pay other people to do everything for them). Everything I do has to fit within the parameters set by my back and my budget, and 45gal trees do not qualify. That's about as likely as me hiring a nice thick cloud to park over my house every afternoon for about 20 minutes.

~ freshair

Okay, I'm doing my version of the slow/fast thing.

I just planted a Texas Redbud in the h3llstrip. From what I've seen in my area, the roots don't heave sidewalks. I'll just have to train it to avoid the bus & our heads.

I have two seedlings in my yards that need to move - the question is where. One is a Red Oak, the other a native Pecan. I want to move one of them to the front yard so that it will begin to provide shade in a few years.

Any comments on their respective growth rates or difficulty in transplanting? Both seedlings are about the same size, with the oak more branched and leafy. It's "trunk" is about the same as the pecan, but it has apparently been cut down before b/c just below the soil surface is the rest of the trunk/root that is much thicker, almost as thick as my pinky finger.

~ freshair

freshair-

best time to dig up trees are during the winter when they are "sleeping". I prefer red oak over pecan. I've grown up around pecan and they are just too messy. Always dropping limbs during storms. Great tree if you have a lot of space...

Don't confuse native with well adapted plants. For example, shantung maple is from china but it does very well here in Texas compared to Red maple. It is not invasive at all. I am growing them in limestone rubble soil where red maple has hard time thriving. Shantung maple has no problem.

I am going to plant 3 'Nanjing Beauty' cypress in the strip this fall/winter when I get in the mood of working with large rocks... You can easily trim branches 15-20 feet above street over time.

Lou ~

We have a lot of pecan at my grandparents' home, where I grew up, and just the pecan picking is almost enough for me to turn away. Theirs are on the mature side of middle-aged and have several sagging limbs.

We planted the red maples back in 2004, before learning about gardening with native plants. I certainly would have selected something entirely different, but they're there, & unless I want to go to a lot of trouble to remove them, I'm sort of stuck with them.

"working with large rock" Do y'all have shallow soil? What kind of rock?

Do you know of a local source for the Nanjing Beauty"?

~ freshair

I would put in a Cedar Elm inside the sidewalk. It will do good there and will grow fairly fast if you keep it watered. You could put in some Crepe Myrtles in the strip too for a bit of faster shade. Look around and you'll probably find trees half off at some nurserys. Just check them closely before buying to make sure they aren't too far gone.

Freshair,

I'm afraid you'd have to order them from Botany Garden shop online or go to Stephen F Austin plant sale if they have them. They are directly responsible for bringing Nanjing Beauty to USA from China where they did extensive research on breeding Montezuma, bald and pond cypress together to find suitable hybrid for certain conditions. Not even native to China but they sure love those trees! We lag way way behind in USA when it comes to breeding those trees... About 20,25 years head start... Anyway, I like Nanjing beauty for better form and fast growth compared to regular Montezuma cypress. Nice rustic red "winter" fall color in late January or early February. :)

I sit on top of limestone rubbles...

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Here's a picture of NB in early December of 2007 at Dallas Arboretum. Notice that it is still green unlike bald cypress. The director of the arboretum seemed to like it a lot and said that it grew like weed.

Here's a pic of mine in front yard displaying "winter" fall color on Feb 5, 2009.
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