Tonight I filled out the request form for the city's half-price tree planting program. We are going with the Autumn Blaze Maple. The nursery that will be supplying and planting the tree is St.  Aubin Nurseries.

Before I officially signed the form and sealed the envelope I wanted to make sure we could still plant the tree where we want it. The packet they sent us has some very specific guidelines on where we can and can not plant a tree, so we took the guidelines and a tape measure outside.

The rules that are of concern to us are:

1. The tree must be at least 10 feet from private driveways.
2. The tree must be at least 5 feet from water valves.

We want to plant it between the driveway and the water valve that is to the west. The valve turns out to be 20 feet to the west. So 5 feet to the east of the valve and 10 feet west of the driveway leaves us with 5 feet of space to pick a spot for the tree. Cool!

"v" is the location of the valve that is 20 feet to the west of the driveway. Driveway is obviously driveway. The section below "tree" is the area where the tree will go. "m" is about where our mailbox is.

street street street street

v     tree      m    driveway
|----|----|----|----|########
                     ########
sidewalk sidewalk    ########
                     ########
house house house    ########

Just curious, was my graphic helpful, confusing, or not really necessary because my description was clear enough?