Fast growing medium sized tree for shade in south facing garden

[TheVeryHungryMummy]

My garden faces south and is a nightmare in the summer for someone so pale as me, so I'm in search of shade - in the form of a relatively fast growing tree. I don't want something which ends up massive, but a medium sized tree would be fine. Any ideas on something which grows pretty quickly but isn't enormous 10 years down the line? I think we have chalky soil here if that helps/matters?

[traviata]

Birch (betula) is always lovely.

how sheltered/ exposed is the site? Any buildings or walls to consider?

[TheVeryHungryMummy]

No buildings or walls nearby to consider. It'll have a fence 10ft away on one side and further on the other.

Are birch trees pretty fast growing?

[traviata]

yes, birch are pretty fast.

this is a good website for choosing trees

I love albizia, also said to be fast growing.

[shovetheholly]

Make sure it's something you can underplant - birch gives a lovely, dappled shade but something like beech tends to kill anything underneath it.

I'm recommending this all the time and it's not a particularly original idea, so apologies to regulars, but you can get stunning white birches - betula jacquemontii. You give them an annual wash with soapy water and they just glimmer out of the garden. A planting of a few, straight specimens would give a lovely effect - and provide the shade you need!

[Cathpot]

shove I've just put that betula jacquemontii on my wish list - it's lovely! All I need now is somewhere to put one....

[shovetheholly]

That made me laugh out loud cath!! Not least because I do the same thing.

I'm going to extend my house because I am being forced to choose between whisky and books now and I am labouring under the irrational impression that this will magically also create more garden space for a white birch. Laws of physics, snores of physics. I'm gonna get it in somehow.

[Cathpot]

I've just been at yoga thinking my way round the garden with my future birch going - nope can't put it there, can't put it there.

I have moved to this lovely, well stocked, established garden which is both brilliant and - established, I'm finding myself tinkering a bit at the edges.

[LittleHouseOnTheShelf]

we have a couple of mountain ash trees, they are lovely for shade. Ours have grown from 1 foot to 15 feet in 10 years.