"James Lee Johnson" wrote in message
nk.net...
"Lil' Dave" wrote:
From the house, the backyard and aft is north. Yes, I want trees there.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. What I meant was: "It seems to me that the first
decision you need to make is whether you want trees in that location which
have leaves during the winter (or trees which are bare in the winter). It
may make a considerable change to the feeling you get in your backyard and
even in the back part of your house (during the winter)". I didn't use
the
word deciduous, because as you know, the live oaks are actually deciduous
but keep their leaves throughout our winters.

Attempting to remain within those two former tree varieties, as they
obviously can
tolerate less precipitation, high heat conditions without human
assistance.
Am attempting a couple of pecan trees within the fenceline.

You are wise to stick with trees which are well adapted and require little
care. However, I think you should also consider biodiversity. There are
other native trees which do well in the Texas hill country. I have many
native elm trees, both in Austin and on my rural property 30 miles west of
Austin. They don't require any more care that the oaks do and they aren't
susceptible to oak wilt or oak decline. Even pecan trees, which will
require a bit more attention to get started, will survive fine when
mature.
However, pecan trees are slow growing and will likely grow even slower in
the poor soil conditions.

It was common practice in the Texas Hill Country, to "improve" the land by
removing all living things except some of the medium and large oak trees.
Alas, this is still a common practice which can readily be seen
throughout
the area. This is often done by people who couldn't tell a pecan tree from
a
Texas madrone, or don't really care. Thus a lot of the hill country has
only oak trees and junipers, which are "nature's bandaid" in the Texas
hill
country.

I'm convinced ALL the trees were cleared from the "flat" areas of my rural
land about 50-60 years ago. There are no really larges trees in those
areas. However, in the ravines, scarps, and slopes, there are large live
oak trees as well as other oaks, cedar and American elms, pecans, and many
other native woody plants.

If you call the Travis County Cooperative Extension Service at
512-854-9600
they will send you a very nice booklet titled "Native and Adapted
Landscape
Plants; an earthwise guide for Central Texas". Ask for the Master Gardner
desk. The booklet will cost a maximum of $1, but is free for people in
Austin.

I hope this message is more clear.

jjhnsn



Have been careful not to remove too much trees and fauna on my 5 acre plat.
Just generally cleared the area around the house, yard except of a stand of
oaks/junipers on the westside, and workshop. The remainder is natural
except where the electric utility company ran the local community utility
poles through my property before I bought it. This okay, but another issue
as some of the neighbors have trees well within the electric wires. The
utility is obviously not servicing these areas by clearing these trees. Its
part of the easement, and the utility company has free access to do so.
Written into each land survey, so all the landowners are aware.
An issue in rural areas is fire hazard. Fire dept response time, fire
hydrant vicinity, and natural tendency of junipers to burn due to their oils
in their leaves, and dead fauna in autumn and winter, lack of precipitation,
summer heat drying everything up, and some very windy days all add up. They
cut out the junipers out because they don't want to mess with them. So, can
understand why some clear their land to such a degree.
Here's a fix to the juniper problem so you can keep them. Cut the lower
branches completely off to around 7 ft.. Pleasing to the eye, and don't
have near the water diversion ability.
One thing many people overlook is that the juniper roots actually crack the
rock, break it up. In the long run this will make the soil more useful.
Just not in our lifetimes.
Elm tree is not a bad idea. My childhood home had some elms. They rival
the pecan in height and shading when mature. An added bonus, not a buttload
of pecans to pickup out of the yard. Have another pecan sapling near the
front yard, not doing well. May replace with an elm next early spring.