"paghat" wrote in
I don't find arborvitae all that "natural" nor anything else lined up in a
row as a screen. If you want natural, you could consider a staggered MIXED
screen.

You are so right. I've got limited space to plant in back of the creek at
one side of the property line, but perhaps I can stagger in a couple of
things in front to sort of "fill in".

If you like aborvitae, then select a couple different cultivars so
they won't look like twins or triplets; break them up with an Alaska
cedar; add in a broadleaf evergreen tree such as Portugese laurel cherry;
have as a centerpiece an extremely well-chosen twisted or weeping atlas
blue cedar or a cedar of lebananon; don't plant them too terribly close
together & fill in between with large woody shrubs, preferably flowering.

Arborvitae was the only evergreen I could think of that was readily
available for a quick screen, but I didn't like the idea of a mass of them.
Unoriginality at its worst. I need to do more research about evergreens
that will work in this area without getting too wide and growing over the
creek or too airy looking and defeating my purpose of planting the screen in
the first place. Thanks for all of the suggestions.

BTW , nice work on your website! I bookmarked it to peruse whenever I get
the time. I love the holly tree on the site, but was dismayed to learn it
would take 20 years to get those great red berries!
Jo


-paghat the ratgirl