Butternut, walnut, hickory, hican

Where there is enough moisture I LOVE species metasequoia. My sense of size is not active tonight lol, bit of you need more narrow the cultivar Ogon is and I believe Sheridan Spire also.

The sweetgum I like also but that may be the wrong place for it. Sugar maple perhaps? I am not an expert on your climate though.

Spot B I dunno... . I'm tempted to say leave it open if it is less than 40 feet from either A or C. You COULD push the oak from B to C and put a smallish maple cultivar in B.

Sweetgum balls are too light to damage a car. Sweetgum have great Fall color and tolerate being near a sidewalk, but not a long lived tree...don't expect it to much outlive you.

Dawn Redwood and Metasequoia are great, super long lived legacy trees. Rare exceptions to the "Fast trees die fast" rule.

If you have a small lot, want quick shade, want long lived "legacy trees" and want your trees to live a long time, I'd recommend you NOT try to do all three with the same tree. Since most trees never stop growing, fast growing long lived trees tend to get too big for the spot...unless the next owner is a huge tree buff, they will get cut down. I'd include one slower growing legacy tree...a Beech (gorgeous but don't like compacted soil or their roots being interfered with), a Tupelo, a gingko (tolerates being near near sidewalks) or a white oak.

Not sure Shumard is the best oak for your purposes. It's a red oak, and those are being threatened by Oak Wilt and Oak decline...so in practice may be shorter lived nowadays. Also it's a huge oak, and I'm not sure you have room for it AND a Metasequoia. Maybe burr oak?

What is the rainfall like in your area? What is your soil like? Sandy, clay, compacted, acidic, alkaline? What direction is north in your picture? Where is the paint you speak of?

Toronado, if I removed B I would probably shift C in to get me more shade during the hot parts of the day. How much moisture do the Dawn Redwoods need? We get around 27 inches of precipitation a year where I am.

edlincoln, I wasn't aware the Sweetgum didn't live long, the wiki page for it says it can live 400 years, is this inaccurate? Here is the link where I get this information:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquidambar_styraciflua

I may actually move the Dawn Redwood into the back yard where I plan on having more thirsty plants. I may instead shift in a Bur Oak which was another tree I really like but I think they get just as big as the Shumard Oak?

I don't want anymore Ginko trees, I already have 4 planted. If you look at photo A, those two existing trees are 'Autumn Gold' Ginkos and the existing tree in photo B and C is a 'Magyar' Ginko tree. Also in the far right close the fence in photo C is a 'Princeton Sentry' Ginko. Lots of Ginko trees :) Some of these trees will for sure be cut down as the bigger trees grow in.

As mentioned above I get around 27 inches a year and my hose is south facing, so these trees will be on the south side of my house. My soil is a silty/loam I believe but I have been working hard to enrich my soil since I bought the house 5 years ago.

27 inches seems reasonable if you don't have dry 100 degree months in the summer. My Metasequoia defoliated in a .12 inch of rain 100 degree month in 2012 and I felt compelled to :gasp: water it!

I only say that half jokingly. The idea of a 100 or even 40 foot tall tree that needs me to water it every summer is one I wanna avoid.

Burr oak is a huge stately tree here. My neighbor has a stunning one I think had a 100+ foot spread last I measured. It may be smaller there.

Sweetgums around here.... I would venture 50 to 70 years on average in suburbia? A big beautiful open grown one at my childhood home is gone now. As are 3 at my grandmother's which were sited poorly. My sister's neighbor had one go from healthy to virtually bare in the last 3 years. We all blame the before mentioned 2012 drought for every unexplained mature tree death the last few years. I love them though anyplace the spike balls aren't an issue. Good structure, bark, foliage, great fall color, good growth.

scotjute, I believe most soil in Utah is alkaline. The Bigtooth Maple looks interesting, I will look at it a bit more.

The good news is the curbing is being poured tomorrow, almost a week ahead of schedule.

I can't remember where I read sweetgum were short lived. I was consideing planting one.

For the record, my recommendation is NOT to skip B, but put something smaller or slower growing there. You can't have all huge trees on that size lot.

Wasn't aware you already planted gingko.

If your soil is silty loam that should be plenty rich enough without improvement for all trees we are considering. The issue is what trees won't like the alkaline soil and what won't like being that near a road.

I am with the others who think two shade trees is plenty for that size front yard. I don't think planting sweetgum or bur oak would be very neighborly - both drop major fruit and half of it will come down on their properties. I know if I had a neighbor try to plant a sweetgum on my property line, I'd make an issue of it.

I'd also lean towards deciduous trees, as the "limbed-up look" works best for big trees on that sized lot. Otherwise, any shade tree that does not get too wide and does not drop a ton of stuff would work there. In retrospect, I would have planted the ginkgo in one of the front corners of the property and something smaller where you have the ginkgo.

edlincoln, reading more the Sweetgums can develop chlorosis in alkaline soils, so it may not be the tree for me.

Hamburglar1, I take your point on the fruit, there is a cultivar of Sweetgum that is fruitless but as pointed out above it doesn't like alkaline soils. If I plant the Bur Oak in spot B the acorns would drop only on my property and the street which may be problematic with how big the Bur Oak acorns get. I have always wanted to plant an Oak tree though, so wondering how problematic the acorns would get on the street(it would probably take many years for the tree canopy to overhang the street). I guess I could try to find a smaller Oak tree or maybe a Bur doesn't get as large in my area.

hamburgler1, I also wish I planted the Ginko in a different spot, should have planted a fast growing tree in that spot, just not sure I want to cut it down. It is finally established, this is its 3rd season in that spot.

It would be hard, but you might be able to move the Ginko.

Sweetgum balls are hollow and light...I don't see them as being a huge problem. You can sweep them up.

Oaks don't produce significant numbers of acorns for years. The trick with oaks is you want to pick one that tolerates alkaline soil and drought. Chinkapin oak (Quercus muhlenbergi) tolerates alkaline soil and and has slightly smaller acorns. Texas Live Oak (Quercus fusiformis) tolerates alkaline soil and drought, although it might be borderline hardy in your area. There are seedless oak cultivars. Quercus macrocarpa 'Big John' for instance.

Say, yellowood tolerates alkaline soil and is very pretty.

I did some more mockups in sketchup and with all the trees at maturity I for sure don't think I have room for a big Oak tree, so I will just have to forget about that I think. Here is a new mockup of what is my current thought:

Let me explain what I have going on here.

The brown trees in the back are existing trees, they are actually a little bit bigger but not in the round way, mainly the they are leaning towards my house and I think in 5 years they have to go. The power company for years indiscriminately hacked off branches at the property line to avoid a power line that has since been moved. I think I would like to start replacing at least 1 or 2 of them with something else, probably evergreens, make my front yard theme deciduous trees and my back yard evergreens :)

The green trees in the back are where I would like to put some evergreens to get some privacy. Expecting 20-25' spread and at least 30-40' but evergreens, so not Dawn Redwoods. Any suggestions?

The gold-yellow trees in the front are existing Ginko trees, the two on the left are Autumn Gold, the middle is a Magyar and the one on the right is a Princeton Sentry. This is the 3rd growing season for them.

The yellow tree in spot 'A' would be a Sunburst Honeylocust, a local nursery states they get 30' tall and 25' wide and are seedless which is always good.

The purple tree in spot 'B' would be a Autumn Purple Ash, that same nursery says it gets 40' tall and 40' wide and is seedless also.

The red tree in spot 'C' would be a Rocky Mountain Big Tooth Maple, that same nursery says it gets 20' tall and 20' wide, mostly there for some more color in fall.

How does that sound? That should give me plenty of shade if the Ginko trees take off and I think these trees grow well in Utah soils too.

EDIT: The colors of the trees should match their fall colors according to the pictures I viewed.

A small tree often planted down here is Redbud, both the standard eastern variety and the Texas variety. It is heat and drought tolerant and should do well up there also. I would have thought you might have chosen a conifer like a Rocky Mt. Juniper over a Dawn Redwood for your area. Let us know what you finally choose.

Another thought is that I move the Ginko in the front yard to the corner, remove the two other Ginko trees and go with this sorta pattern:

I planted the Ginko trees because I thought it was cool that they have been around for so long and that they can live for a long time. Also I looked that spec that said, 60' tall and 40' wide and thought they would be good shade for my house but after seeing how these grow and looking at other pictures on the internet I have my doubts they will live up to my expectation.

In this configuration I would have a Northern Red Oak in the 'A' spot, an Autumn Purple Ash in 'B' spot and maybe a Shademaster Honeylocust in the 'C' spot.

The benefits of this are I get my Oak back. I want to see if I can get some squirrels to live in my yard :) Also then Shademaster Honeylocust is said to be super hardy and great for a grass tree which is exactly what it is here. It also grows faster than the Ginko so I would get the shade I want faster. The other option would possibly be a green ash or a maple tree in spot 'C'.

Then I give the Ginko tree a bit more time to grow and see what happens in 10 years.

I know I am going back and forth but I want to get it right this time. Initially I bought the Ginkos too fast, I actually bought 5 of them in a weeks period of time the first year I owned my house.

Honeylocust are planted a lot because they are one of the few trees that doesn't mind being planted near roads. They tend to have thin canopies, so they don't cast a lot of shade.

You don't have squirrels? And you want them? They eat things other then acorns. They also like pine cones. Turkish filbert and American hazelnut would attract squirrels.