Trees, Roots, and Walls

Just had to get rid of a couple of trees that were trying to knock over a wall and pull down some power lines. They came with the house and I'd never really cared for them (they also had the irritating habit of sending out hundreds of sprouting runners), but now they're gone my part/full shade garden is a part/full sun one. I'd like to put in one tree to restore some of the shade, but it has to be something with a well-behaved and fairly deep root system. The garden isn't large, so there's no practical way to plant it more than about 3' feet from a wall. On the other hand, it'll be sheltered from the wind and should be on the short side (20'-ish) so it doesn't need to have heavyduty anchor-an-oak roots.

Any suggestions?

How about a CA native laurel. I love mine, and I have many, which I can share seedlings of.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/54075/index.html
http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/682.htm

If you have concerns about the aroma, I'd be happy to send you a branch to smell. I love it. The Indians here say it is the tree that keeps away devils.

Here is information about your area with a link to trees, etc. that are native there.
http://www.laspilitas.com/comhabit/cityname.htm

Hope that helps. I'm no tree expert (or expert of anything, for that matter), so someone else will probably have excellent suggestions for you. :-)

I love the idea of planting natives--some other good ones to look into would be Madrone (Arbutus), Manzanita (Arctostaphylos) or Toyon (Heteromeles). Madrone and manzanita both have gorgeous bark which provides interest all on its own, and to top it off they produce flowers and berries, and toyon has pretty white flowers in spring and nice orange/red berries in winter so they all can provide interest through multiple seasons. Toyons and many manzanitas can also be grown as shrubs if you want although they are more the size of small trees (at least with toyon, if you try to grow it as a tree you will spend some time pruning suckers from the base). Chilopsis linearis (desert willow) is another nice choice--it has the most gorgeous flowers but is deciduous so doesn't provide as much year-round interest as the others.

But before you plant CA natives...is this area close to a lawn or something that gets irrigated regularly? Many CA natives will succumb readily to fungal infections if they receive much summer water after they're established so I wouldn't plant them too close to the lawn (if you have one). Also a note on the bay laurel--it is a host for Phytophthora ramorum (the pathogen that causes sudden oak death), so if SOD is a problem in your area I would probably not plant it--SOD won't kill the bay laurels, but it will infect them and they can then spread it to other trees. I have no idea where in CA you are though, SOD tends to be more problematic near the coast from about Monterey northward, so if you're far enough south or far enough inland it may not be an issue for you.

Here's another good reference source on CA native plants: http://www.theodorepayne.org/gallery/glossary.htm

Happily, the area is about as far as it's possilble to get from my lawn and still be on my property, so no worries there. It's the most neglected part of my garden, all the way around the back, so everything in that vicinity at present is low-maintenance, including low water, and I aim to keep it that way. I'm down south here in the LA basin and well away from the coast, too.

The laurel and the manzanita both look good, with the evergreen being another plus (no ton of leaves dropping into my neighbors' yards every year).

On the laurel, the comments in the plant files mention a fairly wide and/or multiple trunk. How big around do they generally get?

You can control how many trunks. We have some that are growing like shrubs because I keep cutting back the trunk of a couple of trees that had to be cut. Tomorrow I'll go out and hug the biggest one and estimate the circumference ;-).

I really like manzanita, too.

Sounds like a great place to try some CA natives! They love those spots that are semi-neglected...too much TLC and you'll kill them!

Having now survived Friday and Saturday with the Chest Cold That Would Not Die ...

Tempting as the laurel is (I'm a sucker for fragrant plants), I think ultimately it will be too big for the location. Maybe too wide, certainly too tall -- the power/phone lines are about 35' up. So the manzanita it is.

Thanks for the offer, 4paws, and for the advice, everyone. I'll keep y'all posted.

:)

When you're at the nursery, make sure you check the tag on the manzanita to make sure you're getting one that'll be the right size...there are tons of different species and cultivars and they range from sprawling groundcover to small tree size and everything in between.