patio with trees in my way

[briannarae]

Ok, here's my delimma...On the west side of our house we have about 10 feet between house and fence. We have nothing there, there's ivy everywhere. We want to lay down a brick patio, put up a privacy fence, adn take down the chain link fence that separates it from back yard, and put up a small gate. We want to put our grill and chairs there. The only problem is, is that all along that side of the house, we have 4 large Silver Maple trees, that drop twigs and limbs like a dog sheds a winter coat. So if we do this we are going to have to always be cleaning the limbs off. What would be a good idea for something to put up as an overhead cover? I thought maybe some (painted maybe?) 2x4's, on the 2" side, going from just under eave of house to fence, with the small chicken wire or something on top of it, and have some vine climbing flower underneath, to kinda block the view of the mess that will be on top? I just hate to see all that area go to waste, and bc of all the tree shade adn mess they produce, we do nothing over there. If I can get a pic, I will post it. But I dont mind getting a ladder every few weeks and clean off top, bc thats better than always having to sweep the patio to even be able to walk across it...!! Any suggestions would be appreciated, sorry so long.

[kactuskid]

My suggestion would be to cut down those Silver Maples. Silver Maples seek out water and will eventually try to penetrate your foundation wall if you have a basement. They also have very weak limbs as you've found out and I would be afraid of it someday toppling over on your house. Plus the fact that they're one of the messiest trees I know of. If they're causing alot of shade on the roof then you also probably have moss or alge growing on that side, which is detrimental to your shingles.

My neighbor finally cut his down after years of prodding from me. The helicopters would clog my gutters and even start to germinate in the gutters, not to mention all the little sprouts I always had to pull up in the lawn from the seeds germinating to grow trees. It also would decide to shed it's leaves AFTER the first snow fall which was a real pain. So, that's my 2 cents, hope it helps.