[Jay Ryan Courtney]

I agree. That was another choice on my radar.  I think I may go with this.  Either the regional native (saskastoon) or the more shade tolerant Amelanchier canadensis.  I definitely want to steer away from the lolly pop type trees or anything with a strait trunk so I am glad to get feed back that some of you think these ornamental choices with more character will be ok.

Thanks!

[Jay Ryan Courtney]

Thanks for the input everyone.  

I’m not to concerned about the “hack job” pruning of a tree for this space.  I being a Certified Arborist am going to make clear to the client to only have a high end tree care company with Certified Arborist prune this tree over the years and to have it pruned to keep it’s natural shape and form.  I have pruned many trees in small spaces and know from experience that it is possible too keep a natural looking form in a tight spot if care and patience is practiced.

Again my concern here is the foundation and side walk.  I have seen mature red buds with close to 1′ caliper so my concern is “would this harm the foundation”?

As people have mentioned, some landscapes are shorter lived.  I’m thinking maybe these trees listed or something similar would be ok for 20 yrs. or so with no worries on the foundation?  If so I think the client and I would be happy with a choice like this.  

[Jay Ryan Courtney]

[Jay Ryan Courtney]

[Jay Ryan Courtney]

I guess this niche market is what I was referring to. It is a way to recycle urban timber that would have other wise gone to the landfill or be chipped into mulch.  The wood that my old boss reclaims falls into this category. He has relationships with local Tree companies who call him up when they are removing or trimming trees where the wood may be of interest to him.  He is actually getting the timber for free and saving them the cost of chipping or hauling.  This must work because Colorado has fewer prized lumber species.  It is not worth it for the tree service companies to try and sell the higher quality urban timber at a large scale because it is infrequent that quality lumber is obtainable.  The grassroots small time is where things often start.  Thats all I was getting at on the off-subject subject.

[Jay Ryan Courtney]

I have worked as an arborist through my Landscape Architecture schooling and my old boss has created a company based on the idea of recycling urban timber.  He gets his timber from relationships with local tree service companies and the city forestry department.  The shelves that our chainsaws would sit on in our shop were even milled from recycled urban timber.  I think this idea could ‘grow’ even further for things like park benches and even lumber for construction.  MVVA has used recycled timber in Brooklyn bridge park from structures on the site that were disassembled.  And it turns out that it was very high quality Yellow Pine used in there benches.

http://www.baldwinwoodworking.com/our-wood 

[Jay Ryan Courtney]

[Jay Ryan Courtney]

I second Niko’s Luxembourg pick. Out of all the places I visited it was the place that the locals seemed to enjoy the most and the place where I felt most inclined to just kick back and hang.

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