Can any of you suggest any trees that grow at a super fast rate for a 7a or 7b zone? We just bought a house and land, and while we have lots of trees, none are in a good area to create a nice shady garden near the house. I'm too old to buy small trees and wait for them to grow tall if they are slow growing, and I really don't want to buy huge trees since they cost too much for the most part. Any suggestions would be great. Oh, and no more pine trees. We have more than enough of those.

Edited to add that I don't need any more fruit trees either. We have a small orchard with very young trees, and there are more than enough of those.

Birch grow pretty fast around here. I wouldn't classify them as a shade tree but maybe a small grove? Here's an article I came across that might help.
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/to...

Thanks for the link Evan! We have a River Birch at our other house that is on the market, and have decided that we need one here. Like you said, they aren't really shade trees, but they do a great job of providing shade after the sun goes behind them. I really love that tree, and it grew very fast! We'll add some Aspens too. They aren't really shade trees, where you can sit under them, but they'll provide afternoon shade, which is what we need here. They spread bad, but I've got plenty of room for that.

I've been paying more attention to the trees in our area. There are a lot of Birch trees growing here, so at least I know they do well. Our neighbor has part of of property lined by them, and the ones that she has are huge, and do provide way more shade underneath than our River Birch was capable of. Not sure of the variety yet, but we'll get that figured out eventually. I have one on the east side of our house too. It's not nearly as tall as the neighbors tree, but it may be a lot younger.

If I had the space I'd definitely add a River Birch(es). I love our weeping cherry for shade but it takes a while before it gets to that point. It took a beating during our late October snow storm in 2011 but is self-repairing nicely. Selecting trees is such a big deal, but fun! Good luck.

We have 12 1/2 acres, so space is ample here! Not all of it usable acreage though, since it is rather steep because it's a river canyon. But, there is at least 5 acres for tree planting, so I will get several River Birch. Birch seem to do well here too, which is a bonus! I'm just trying to get ideas on different trees, since if they were all the same, that would be a little boring!

We have several wild elderberry down the hill, and they are HUGE! I'm thinking about growing some of those, too, if I can get them started from cuttings. I brought a couple of small ones from my last house that I started from cuttings, but they will probably only get about 10 to 12 feet high. They make nice filtered shade! I just haven't figured out where to put them yet.

Sorry to hear about your weeping cherry, but it's good that it's bouncing back. Those trees are so beautiful!

Catalpa is amazingly fast!

Thanks for the suggestion. It was a popular tree where I used to live, and I hadn't thought about it for here. Love the blooms and huge leaves, but it worries me because it's a host for moths. I hate moths! I'll have to find out if that moth is in my area first!

I've always wanted a thornless honeylocust for its light dappled shade. We may plant one of them on the east side of our new addition, and another magnolia for deeper shade on the west end.

Chelle, my neighbor had one, and it left a HUGE mess every year with those tiny little leaves. I think they are beautiful, but would never plant one. It took me ages to clean up the leaves from the neighbors tree every year. I think if they were far away from the house, where you didn't care about the mess, they wouldn't be so bad. But, those little leaves do blow everywhere.

And then there are the pods. If the wind blew toward my house, which was often, my entire backyard would be covered with the pods from the neighbors tree. It was a nightmare that lasted for months.

http://blog.arborday.org/the-f...

Natalie said:Chelle, my neighbor had one, and it left a HUGE mess every year with those tiny little leaves. I think they are beautiful, but would never plant one. It took me ages to clean up the leaves from the neighbors tree every year. I think if they were far away from the house, where you didn't care about the mess, they wouldn't be so bad. But, those little leaves do blow everywhere.

And then there are the pods. If the wind blew toward my house, which was often, my entire backyard would be covered with the pods from the neighbors tree. It was a nightmare that lasted for months.

Thanks for the warning, Natalie. I was thinking that the tiny leaves would be less problematic and a great mulch!

Thanks Debra! I saw a few possibilities there!

Chelle, the leaves do make a great mulch. My yard had flower beds all the way around it, with lawn in the middle. I just left the leaves in the flower beds, but HAD to get them off the lawn, because they killed the lawn if I didn't. Raking is almost impossible, because of the small size. The only way to really get them off the lawn was with a leaf blower. The only problem with that is that it was almost impossible to direct them when they took off flying! It just seemed to blow them to a different area, without actually cleaning them up. We had to get the leaves wet first, to make any progress, but it never really worked well. I HATED that tree, even though it was really pretty!