Looks like you’ve got room for a lot of trees

How about a ginkgo? Then some other small trees/large shrubs (low maintenance) along that garden space?

Make that a male ginkgo, BTW.

Check out this Sourwood. https://www.uky.edu/hort/Sourwood

Magnolia 'Kay Parris'

BTW, someone might come along and say evergreen Magnolias are 'messy' trees, and not something you want next to a driveway. My Kay Parris is right next to my driveway, at a point where it widens slightly for a garage apron. Never had a problem with leaves or cones. Granted I'm in a windy microclimate and maybe they just blow away. But they are smaller.

Downy Serviceberry might work. Arkansas native, spring blooms, fall color. You can keep the size in check, similar to how you would a Crape Myrtle.

i dont understand the whole street configuration ... are you the dead end???

i always suggest to avoid planting anything at the end of a driveway.. if you are going to be backing out into traffic.. or children ...

thats my only caveat .... i dont know AR ... so i cant suggest plants ..

ken

check out Vitex

Great suggestions-several that were not on my radar. After reading about each, I think a Serviceberry or Vitex might be best for our location and level of know how. Appreciate the responses and any others you may have!

ken_adrian, we are at the dead end of the street that has minimal car/foot traffic. That is a good point about the tree blocking visibility, but i think we have enough distance and vertical drop from the street for a tree not to be an issue. The driveway also allows for turnaround out of the garage, so we rarely back out vs drive out forward.

That just seems to me to be a very tight space for a tree. One tree. I don’t really understand why you wish to plant it there, crammed into that tiny space. Sorry!

15' wide and how tall? What happens when the 15' width is reached, will you then be having to cut it back every year? If so you will then need to either plant something smaller growing instead or a kind that can be headed back repeatedly without being spoiled visibly.

Also you are taking the automatic approach to view blocking that is often seen on this forum, that is placement of screening planting over where the unwanted view is. Instead of where you are looking from - the latter is the most efficient as the plants do not have to become nearly as big to do the job.

Which brings up another recurring aspect of this subject area - how long are you willing to wait for a tree out at the entrance to reach enough size to screen as much as you would like starting today? Because you should keep in mind the effect you are going for might take many years to be produced by a new planting.

Which gets us back to maybe you should do something up by the house instead. Something that would produce the desired privacy level more quickly, if not immediately. As in maybe even something built rather than planted.