my house is situated in a way that the sun shines through the back every afternoon, and it's annoying. the little shrubs my home builder planted is nowhere near enough and i'm thinking of buying one or a couple of trees for shade purposes. does anyone know how much a big tree costs? like one that's maybe 20 or 30 years old?

 

Very expensive, your talking a mature tree. Just the moving/planting costs would be several thousand dollars.

Mingster, search for a local tree nursery in your area. Find a relatively fast growing species, with a full growth habit to block the sun. I'm not familiar with prices in your area, but a native tree should be the least expensive. For a twenty foot native species I would guess your looking at $1,200.00- $2,0000.00 installed.

A cheaper alternative might be a outdoor shade/awning. That way you could go with a lesser priced tree and use the shade/awning until it's mature enough to shade the window.

 

 

I agree to

Surely the nursery's would help you out.

Palm tress can't be much for shade protection, you would need a leafy tree possibly

 

just tint your window homeboy! less expensive and low maintenance.

 

yeah, sounds like it...the tint guy says $2500 for the whole house

 

Mingster,

If you don't want to spend too much try a couple of silver maples. They grow like weeds. I bought two 5 footers two years ago and they are about 13-15 feet tall now. They can go from a sapling to two stories tall as quick as anything. Mine have grown very fast but you have a longer growing season in Indy so down there they might do better. And they are dirt cheap. I bought mine at Home Depot for $20 each but you can get a ten footer to start with delivered for about $200 a tree.

The downside with silver maples is that the wood is not as hard as other trees so they grow fast but can lose a hunk every now and then from a good thunderstorm. They just turn yellow in the fall, not really a colorful fall tree like a sugar maple or an autum blaze maple. And mine are not mature enough to produce seeds yet but I think they drop those helicopter things when they mature.

If you can put up with all the negatives they are a very fast growing shade tree. They can grow to be about 50 feet tall too.

Sugar Maples don't grow quite as fast but they do ok too. They are a very brilliant color in the fall and are a stronger more attractive tree in the summer.

A disease resitant Dutch Elm grows fast but they are fairly ugly.

Hardwoods like Oak grow slowwwwwwwwwwwwww.

 

I've got a tree that i'm about to get rid of and would rather not chop it down..... it's too bad you aren't closer.

 

You don't need a 20-yr old tree - just buy a young fast grower for a couple hundred $, and stay on top of it to keep it shaped and not too tall.

 

wow!! just buy the tint and do it yourself!! it's not too hard.