growing a tree fence

[Anonymous Poster]

My house sits about 150' back from the road. I want to plant some trees out by the edge of the road (starting about 10' feet back so they won't get in the way when watching for traffic when pulling out of the driveway) and going about 100' on each side of the driveway. I'm planning to grow a double row of trees with the spacing of the second row being staggered with the first row. The idea is to create a privacy fence and noise barrier.

I've seen this done quite a lot, either with spruce or pine trees. Once the trees get to about 20' in height, it really looks good and is very effective. The tree branches overlap each other and it's easy to mow along each side of the row of trees. Unfortunately, it takes many years for the trees to get that big. What I'm trying to figure out is what to do in the several years that they are small. I don't want to create a mowing nightmare by having a bunch of small trees to have to trim around and in between. The main reason I bought my compact tractor (New Holland TC29D) and 6' finish mower was to reduce the time it takes to mow the grass.

I'm figuring on having the trees spaced about 9' or 10' apart. I've seen people put mulch in the entire area, but I can't do that because the area turns into a temporary river during hard spring rains. It gets about a foot deep and flows pretty hard, so it would just wash the mulch away. I wanted to just let the grass grow taller and only mow it about once a month to a height of about 6 1/2" (the max on my finish mower). But, my wife doesn't want the end of the yard to "look like a field". I also thought of spraying the whole area with Roundup, but once the grass dies that would look bad too.

So, any ideas on how to keep it looking decent until the trees finally get big enough to overlap each other? That is, without having to spend an enormous amount of time mowing!

 

[M. Sullivan]

Looking at doing the same thing, and fortunately have an oldtimer nursery owner friend. Here's what I was advised:

-Space 10-12 feet between rows and between trees. Design so you can mow/steer easily between (zig zag on 1st pass and the same on the opposite side on the return trip), which you will be able to do for 4-5 years. Thereafter, will have to cut on the diagonal if that makes sense.

- Buy the biggest you can afford up to 5-6' tall initially--no bigger as feeder roots will ilkely be cut when installed (or you will pay a fortune to get the whole ball). As long as you start with 3' + you can expect a foot growth a year average over 7 years--assuming proper soil.

- Mulch just under the limbs spread diameter when planted. Thereafter nature will keep the underside clear of long grasses/weeds.

Should be minimal impact on maintenance time overall.

 

[heehaw]

we planted "autumn olive" instead of trees; the grow fast, birds love the berries and make a great screen.
heehaw

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Heehaw, where did you get the autumn olives? Is this a bush? Is it an evergreen? How tall do they get? Thanks.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

A couple of things I have run into:

- 10 feet from the road sounds good until you factor in the snow plows burying and damaging your young trees, and possible salt poisoning from the road.

- Most evergreen trees need adequate drainage, and do not do well with "wet feet". The standing water a foot deep in the spring may be very harmful to trees not selected with this in mind.

 

[fishman]

I'm not sure where you are at so this may not help. My dad, who lives in Missouri, planted American hazelnuts as a screen for a metal building next door. They were planted 6 feet apart. For the first 2-3 years we had to mow in between them, then they grew together to form a real thicket. After 5-6 years, they were about 12' high and the hedge was 8' wide. Now, 18 years later, they are about 20' high and 10' wide. Your results could be a lot better with fertilization and regular watering. Mowing consists of driving the tractor down one side and up the other. Benefits of trees like that are manyfold. Privacy is maintained from the ground up, as they are very bushy, even during the winter when the leaves fall. They require no care whatsoever, and are not subject to breakage due to ice like evergreens. Lastly, hazelnuts are quite tasty, if you can beat the squirrels to them.

As an aside, he also planted a bush called Russian Olive, perhaps the same thing as Autumn Olive. He planted this as a brush screen for the road at the same time as the hazelnuts. The Russian Olive did not grow nearly as dense or as tall as the hazelnuts, and are much more prone to breakage.

As always, other's results may vary.

 

[Jag]

My two cents and all spare change.. Russian Olive-Autumn Olive makes a very thick dense bush, and with proper soil does grows well... About twenty years ago dad planted some around the house to feed the deer in the fall.. They have taken over so we have very little view from the house. I will be cutting them out and relocating them this winter. One I cut out last year for my wife's flower bed the single bush covered over 1200 sqft. Yes about 10-30 feet wide to 30-50 feet long. These older bushes will push out about 2-3 feet each year during the growing season here, that is what I have to cut back around the gate going into the field. They get about 10 feet tall and make a very dense hedge.

 

[dmccarty]

On my old lot I had Russian Olive all over the place and had to cut out a bunch of them from my septic field. My new property has loads of the pesky plant as well. I call it Russian Olive. I don't know if someone told me what it was or I looked it up in a book.

Does it have small leaves all year round on multiple thin trunks? If you cut it does it come back? I've never seen any olives. Thats what these plants do. There was a fairly large one on my road that had to have been 12 feet across before I cut it back. Course they are all regrowing again. I'm hoping a controled burn will take care of these pesky things....

One man's weed is another man's treasure...

I could see how they would make a good hedge if kept under control but they making walking in the woods a PITA.

Are they non-native plants? My memory says not based on the name but I really don't know/remember the answer.

Later....
Dan McCarty

 

[teherzog]

I'm looking to do something similar and in the thread 'Big Trees' there was a company Musser Forests that has a great web site musserforests.com (I tried to make the link work and failed). I ordered there catalog, great selection and good prices. Tom H

 

[RobS]

I'll vouch for Musser Forests. I ordered 100 Norway Sprice from them last fall. They came quickly (almost too quickly for my personal schedule at the time /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif) and were very nice plants. A friend turned me on to them and he's planted over 1800 trees on his land. He's been very pleased as well. I just got the new catalog and am planning my order for the spring (if it ever gets here /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif).

I just got the annual tree sale flyer from our local soil and water conservation district and thier prices are higher than Musser.

Here's the link: Musser