Unless you don't mind dealing with a mess two or three times a year, skip the live oak.

I had 60 year old trees in my yard at our previous home, and if you weren't dealing with acorns, it was dead leaves or the green "hairies" that come after the leaves fall.

Oh...and oak mold if you have allergies.

It's possible I dislike magnolia trees more than live oaks, but it's a close run thing.

(Fortunately, I think you're out of the zone for both trees.)

Ha! We are in zone 4 and planted a red oak in our front yard last summer. And I was just thinking how much I miss the two magnolias we left when we moved to the country.

I am no horticulturist, but I think a live oak is a specific type of tree or a group of trees. That is not the same as an oak tree which is alive. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Would a garden web site provide better answers to the poster's questions?

Not for me....what a mess in the fall!

Maple instead? Beautiful varieties.

Wait... What? Oaks are deciduous? The SoCal canyon variety (what we call a live oak) definitely do not lose their leaves. They are wonderful.

Here in Savannah Ga we love our live oaks. They do lose their leaves in the spring right as the new leaves are coming out, hence the name 'live' oak.

Definitely plant hardwoods in your front yard, a local nursery can provide suggestions as to varietal. Mature trees add 10-15000 to the value of a home (if you believe the Internet)

I had two maples planted in front of one of my properties ten years ago and they are huge now.

oak trees are awful. i was so glad the day the 2 giant 85 year olds were taken down. they were older than the house, which means someone actually built our house 10 feet back from a pair of 30 year old oaks.

between turning your ankle on acorns, having squirrels digging in the yard to bury the acorns... digging again to unbury the acorns.... the leaves staying up til late november when raking leaves has ceased to be a pleasant fall activity... completely killing the grass from the giant wet leaves if not raked....the deep shade making it impossible to have a nice lawn... can you tell i hate oak trees? the only good thing was the wood is valuable, so it didnt cost much to have the two taken down, as the tree service gave us credit for the value of the wood.

say no to oaks. maples are a bit more pleasant.

Flopsycat: It's an oak. A type of oak like a pin oak, red oak, burr oak. It's not deciduous, but the new leaves are coming out right at the time the old start to drop. In the spring. Followed by the green hairies which at least decompose, unlike the rest of the blasted tree.

Ellsworth:: I'm looking forward to planting one maple in the front yard and possibly 2 in the backyard. Gorgeous trees.

may want to rethink those maples, lyric. we have 2 massive ones, and every spring, we have to spend weeks pulling up maple sprouts. they are everywhere. they are so much work. ruins any landscaping you may have.

Oh man. I want color. LOL I'll have to look into what grows there. It's a different world from Dallas, Texas.

I live in Ohio and have had a variety of maple trees in different yards. I would recommend any of the sugar maple varieties or a hybrid of sugar/silver maple. I would also recommend staying away from silver maple as they as are always dropping branches !

check with nurseries or garden centers in you area for tree choices that fit your area and your preferences.

A local nursery is your best bet for advice. Is there an arboretum near you, maybe in an agricultural college, that has full grown trees you can see?

This link may be helpful. They suggest several oaks for your zone. https://www.arborday.org/Shopping/Trees/PopularTrees.cfm?zone=3

I appreciate the comments, the websites and our local authorities are great with the technical info but what I want are the horror stories, the won't move within 500 miles of this plant stories, the things Houzzers are the best at. I want to know I will be cleaning up 3 times a year somehow in the reading it doesn't come off that way. My husband dearly wants to plant a tree and he now has his heart set on an oak so I need to know how bad can it get?

My only experience is with a live oak, and like I said, stay very far away unless the cleanup mess doesn't bug you

Northern Red Oak, White Oak and Bur Oak are the only ones that will grow in Zone 3.

Live Oak is for warmer climates.

Maples are NOT more pleasant or any cleaner than oaks. Confirmation bias is all those kinds of claims are.

Maples have spring bud scales, the dropped flowers, invasive, thick, shallow roots, and so many leaves AND samaras in the fall/spring depending on species followed by thousands of seedlings EVERYWHERE.

Sure, maples (especially sugar and black) are excellent trees and better than things like willow and cottonwood, but let's get real.

Honestly, most of the people commenting here dislike ALL trees but don't realize it because any real tree (not those cruddy, small ornamental things) makes a mess.

Name one that doesn't and you'll be proven wrong.

Steven

we have eighteen oak trees we have planted in our yard over the last thirty years ... some from acorns ... amazingly the Pin Oaks grew heartily and were incredibly fast growers. See EIghteen Oak Trees

Another nice thing about the Pin Oaks ... they hold their leaves in the fall and dont make a mess of leaf pick-up / clean up ... and they're good symetrically shaped.

But we love our Locust trees .. huge, hearty, no leaves for clean-up ..

The biggest thing to consider is spacing! You MUST consider how big it will grow during the 20 -30 years you are there. The place accordingly!

It's a tree - there will be leaves - and twigs and other things that fall off it. Welcome to having the beauty of a tree on your property!

I don't know what kind of oak trees I had in my front yard. I had 2. They were huge and they did most certainly lose their leaves in the fall. They were probably 60 years old. They succumbed, unfortunately, to a drought spell we had a few summers ago and had to be cut down. :( I loved them. They provided so much shade. Yes, there were acorns that dropped, and yes, squirrels liked them. But I did not mind that. I like looking at the wildlife. But my house is kinda in the country and I'm used to seeing critters in the yard. And my yard is not ultra manicured; I mostly just mow it in the spring/summer and let the fallen leaves fertilize the soil in the fall. I like it looking natural and wooded. For a brief time I had fall color right in my own yard. Fortunately, a couple more of those oak trees decided to pop up in my yard and now are growing tall. I look forward to the day they provide shade in the summer and color in the fall.