I have a 4 to 5 foot high x 100' long "mound of dirt". It helps to
block the view of a busy rural highway. I want to start a evergreen
privacy hedge on the top of the mound. I would like it grow this hedge
as tall a prudent but keep the hedge fairly narrow. I am worried about
pests, diseases, and maintance. Also I would like to start the hedge
this year and have very little money. I hope have some good privacy in
five to seven years when I hope to sell the house. Any advice would
help.

Thanks

Spitz

"Spitz Mcgee" wrote in message
ups.com...
I have a 4 to 5 foot high x 100' long "mound of dirt". It helps to
block the view of a busy rural highway. I want to start a evergreen
privacy hedge on the top of the mound. I would like it grow this hedge
as tall a prudent but keep the hedge fairly narrow. I am worried about
pests, diseases, and maintance. Also I would like to start the hedge
this year and have very little money. I hope have some good privacy in
five to seven years when I hope to sell the house. Any advice would
help.


Beyond buying a lottery ticket and hoping for the best, we don't know where
you live, so it is hard to give specific advice.

In my area, (zone 6) one of the most common plants for a tall privacy hedges
is arborvitae. You can often get 4-5 foot high plants for around 20 each.
Planted four to six feet apart, you would have a reasonably dense, narrow
hedge in about 5 years. Costco has them in stock now for a good price.
However, at one every six feet, you would need about 17 at a cost of over
$350.

Another fast grower would be Leyland Cyprus. However, these can grow very
tall and put your property into deep shade.

Although it is a matter of taste, I find such hedges rather ugly. They sort
of scream "spite fence" or "KEEP OUT." The other problem is that often one
or two plants will die after several years. At that point you have a choice
of putting in another 5 foot plant for $20 or pay upwards of $100 for a
matching-size plant. Now your uniform hedge looks bad - like it has a
missing tooth, unless you can locate and pay for the larger plant. The
other problem with a single species hedge is that if there is a disease or
insect problem, you can lose your entire screen. This has happen in our
region. Many commercial properties and apartment complexes have berms with
white pines on them. Now all the pines are dead or dying and it looks like
hell. The cost to remove 100 feet of mature pines and replant would be
substantial.

I would recommend that you drive around your area, looking at commercial
properties, up-scale subdivisions, golf courses, and parks. See what they
have used for screening. Unfortunately, nothing is going to be very
inexpensive. If it were me, I would consider using a mix of plants that
included evergreens, shrubs, and trees with an underplanting of sturdy
perennials.

Ditto what Vox said! Much more pleasing to the eye and will definately add to your property value. Maybe a grouping of Arborvitae with three ornamental flowering trees in front of them and some flowering shrubs to pick up the bloom after that. Then some evergreen hollies with early spring blooming shrubs in front and summer daylilies that rebloom. Some plants and some of the shrubs can be gotten as cuttings or trades at plant swaps (I can tell you where and how if you're interested), for SASE (Self Addressed Stamped Envelope) at some forums, cuttings from friends and relatives and the evergreens and trees can be gotten at: http://www.arborday.org/
You can join for about $15.00 and get 10 free trees. Also see this site for postage only that others have been pleased with.
http://www.freetreesandplants.com

Newt

Vox Humana wrote:
"Spitz Mcgee" wrote in message
ups.com...
I have a 4 to 5 foot high x 100' long "mound of dirt". It helps to
block the view of a busy rural highway. I want to start a
evergreen privacy hedge on the top of the mound. I would like it
grow this hedge as tall a prudent but keep the hedge fairly
narrow. I am worried about pests, diseases, and maintance. Also
I would like to start the hedge this year and have very little
money. I hope have some good privacy in five to seven years when
I hope to sell the house. Any advice would help.


Beyond buying a lottery ticket and hoping for the best, we don't
know where you live, so it is hard to give specific advice.

In my area, (zone 6) one of the most common plants for a tall
privacy hedges is arborvitae. You can often get 4-5 foot high
plants for around 20 each. Planted four to six feet apart, you
would have a reasonably dense, narrow hedge in about 5 years.
Costco has them in stock now for a good price. However, at one
every six feet, you would need about 17 at a cost of over $350.

Another fast grower would be Leyland Cyprus. However, these can
grow very tall and put your property into deep shade.

Although it is a matter of taste, I find such hedges rather ugly.
They sort of scream "spite fence" or "KEEP OUT." The other problem
is that often one or two plants will die after several years. At
that point you have a choice of putting in another 5 foot plant for
$20 or pay upwards of $100 for a matching-size plant. Now your
uniform hedge looks bad - like it has a missing tooth, unless you
can locate and pay for the larger plant. The other problem with a
single species hedge is that if there is a disease or insect
problem, you can lose your entire screen. This has happen in our
region. Many commercial properties and apartment complexes have
berms with white pines on them. Now all the pines are dead or
dying and it looks like hell. The cost to remove 100 feet of
mature pines and replant would be substantial.

I would recommend that you drive around your area, looking at
commercial properties, up-scale subdivisions, golf courses, and
parks. See what they have used for screening. Unfortunately,
nothing is going to be very inexpensive. If it were me, I would
consider using a mix of plants that included evergreens, shrubs,
and trees with an underplanting of sturdy perennials.

In the subject line it says - Zone 5 - WI.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8
Sunset Zone 5

Oops, so it does. We don't know the exposure so what will be in shade and what will be in sun will have to be determined by Spitz. The other request was for it to be narrow, so this may not work. So, to continue, a grouping (looks more pleasing in odd numbered groups) of Arborvitae (some are narrower then others) with Oakleaf hydrangea in front (carefree - no pruning, lovely fall color and pretty flowers late summer) and maybe some everblooming daylilies - yellows or whites stand out against the green (search at google with the term: daylily + everbloom), a grouping of hollies with ninebark in front and hardy Geranium 'Rozanne' in front of that. 'Rozanne' starts blooming in June and blooms until frost. Spreads to a nice clump and it's purple flowers are a knockout! Then a few yews, maybe Hicks yew with red twig dogwood or yellow twig dogwood in front. Lovely colored twigs in the snow. Only maintenance is to prune to the ground the oldest twigs every other year so the newer ones show their colors in the winter.

http://www.aboutarborvitae.com/
http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com/index.html
http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/p/phyopu/phyopu1.html
http://www.paghat.com/ninebark.html
http://www.plantdelights.com/Catalog...ail/05111.html
http://www.paghat.com/redtwig.html
http://www.borkgardencenter.com/Evergreens/YewHicks.htm

Before I list more ideas, such as winterberry with it's lovely red fruits in the winter against the snow, we need to know the potential width of the planting area. Here's a couple of search engines where you can search by zone and other attributes.
http://bestplants.chicago-botanic.org/toc.htm
http://www.hort.uconn.edu:591/search.html

Btw, many of the plants I've mentioned offer berries to the birds, nectar to the butterflies and extra winter interest for those long winters in the snow.

Newt

You have all be so great to help me out! This hedge will be my only
opportunity to block out the sights and more importantly sounds of the
busy rural highway. It is full sun and the house is atleast 50 ft away
from the mound at its closest point. I am trying to minimize the
negative effect on my future resale because I am the only house in the
neighborhood with property line on this busy road.

Spitz, you are so very welcome! As to the space, I actually was referring to the width of the mound, but you can still plant on the slope of it. With that much space I would suggest that you try and do your tallest plantings in groups of 3 or 5 and place each group in a staggered pattern, with the taller plantings at the end points like this: W Do consider the ultimate mature width and height. I would place the smaller shrubs and flowers on the house side of the screen for esthetics from your property. That is where you will need to determine the shade as the taller evergreen trees grow. If the sun will pass from north to south or east to west, you will need to know how much sun those shrubs and flowers will get after the trees are planted. If the house side of the planting will be north, that will limit what shrubs you can plant.

There are some wonderful vibrunums with flowers in the spring and berries for the birds. Some grow quite wide but most are not evergreen, especially in your zone 5 location. Here's a site about them.
http://www.sylvannursery.com/pdf/viburnum.pdf

One of the loveliest viburnums is the Viburnum plicatum var. tomentosum and they're hardy in your zone. Also known as doublefile viburnum because it blooms in clusters along the horizontal stems with a row of blossoms on each side of the stem, creating a double row. Consider Viburnum plicatum 'Summer Snowflake' that gets up to 10' tall but only 6' wide, or it's larger cousin Viburnum plicatum 'Shasta'. There is even a variegated 'Shasta' now. Shasta can get quite wide, and in front of a group of three hollies, you would only need one to knock your socks off when it's mature in size and in bloom. The 'tomentosum' viburnums have layerd branches and sometimes people think they are some type of dogwood tree.
http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/v/vibpli/vibpli3.html

In five years a one gallon pot (if you can find one that small) will probably have doubled in size. Larger ones may take a little longer. Figure when planting the saying: "The first year they sleep, the second year they creep and the third year they leap." It will take them a year to establish their root systems and you will need to water, in the winter too if there's no snow cover and it's dry. Of course if you get lake effect snow, no problem. You'll just have to worry about drying winds!

Newt

The width of the mound is no more than a foot or two. The sides are 45
degrees or more. It is on the west side of the property so the winds
could tear it up. Little to no lake effect 20 to 30 miles west of the
Lake. I doubt I could plant on the west side of the mound because of
the property line.

I am worried about the hedge driving deep roots to the level of the
rest of the land. And I worried about pests that might make my hedge
"toothy"

Thanks Again

Newt wrote:
Spitz Mcgee Wrote:
You have all be so great to help me out! This hedge will be my
only opportunity to block out the sights and more importantly
sounds of the busy rural highway. It is full sun and the house is
atleast 50 ft away
from the mound at its closest point. I am trying to minimize the
negative effect on my future resale because I am the only house in
the neighborhood with property line on this busy road.


Spitz, you are so very welcome! As to the space, I actually was
referring to the width of the mound, but you can still plant on the
slope of it. With that much space I would suggest that you try and
do your tallest plantings in groups of 3 or 5 and place each group
in a staggered pattern, with the taller plantings at the end points
like this: W Do consider the ultimate mature width and height. I
would place the smaller shrubs and flowers on the house side of the
screen for esthetics from your property. That is where you will
need to determine the shade as the taller evergreen trees grow. If
the sun will pass from north to south or east to west, you will
need to know how much sun those shrubs and flowers will get after
the trees are planted. If the house side of the planting will be
north, that will limit what shrubs you can plant.

There are some wonderful vibrunums with flowers in the spring and
berries for the birds. Some grow quite wide but most are not
evergreen, especially in your zone 5 location. Here's a site about
them.
http://tinyurl.com/999s9

One of the loveliest viburnums is the Viburnum plicatum var.
tomentosum and they're hardy in your zone. Also known as doublefile
viburnum because it blooms in clusters along the horizontal stems
with a row of blossoms on each side of the stem, creating a double
row. Consider Viburnum plicatum 'Summer Snowflake' that gets up to
10' tall but only 6' wide, or it's larger cousin Viburnum plicatum
'Shasta'. There is even a variegated 'Shasta' now. Shasta can get
quite wide, and in front of a group of three hollies, you would
only need one to knock your socks off when it's mature in size and
in bloom. The 'tomentosum' viburnums have layerd branches and
sometimes people think they are some type of dogwood tree.
http://tinyurl.com/crxcd

In five years a one gallon pot (if you can find one that small) will
probably have doubled in size. Larger ones may take a little longer.
Figure when planting the saying: "The first year they sleep, the
second year they creep and the third year they leap." It will take
them a year to establish their root systems and you will need to
water, in the winter too if there's no snow cover and it's dry. Of
course if you get lake effect snow, no problem. You'll just have
to worry about drying winds!

Newt

The sun always rises in the East and sets in the West.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8
Sunset Zone 5

My doublefile viburnum (mariesii) quadrupled in size in one year, and by the
third year, I was having to give her a haircut every spring, as she reached
6 feet tall and about 10 feet in diameter. Either our soil is even richer
than I thought, or I accidentally found her the conditions she likes. She is
in part shade (all shade during the winter -north side of the house) in
fairly clayish rich black volcanic soil, but very rocky.
"Newt" One of the loveliest viburnums is the Viburnum plicatum var.
tomentosum
and they're hardy in your zone. Also known as doublefile viburnum
because it blooms in clusters along the horizontal stems with a row of
blossoms on each side of the stem, creating a double row. Consider
Viburnum plicatum 'Summer Snowflake' that gets up to 10' tall but only
6' wide, or it's larger cousin Viburnum plicatum 'Shasta'. There is
even a variegated 'Shasta' now. Shasta can get quite wide, and in front
of a group of three hollies, you would only need one to knock your socks
off when it's mature in size and in bloom. The 'tomentosum' viburnums
have layerd branches and sometimes people think they are some type of
dogwood tree.
http://tinyurl.com/crxcd

In five years a one gallon pot (if you can find one that small) will
probably have doubled in size. Larger ones may take a little longer.
Figure when planting the saying: "The first year they sleep, the second
year they creep and the third year they leap." It will take them a year
to establish their root systems and you will need to water, in the
winter too if there's no snow cover and it's dry. Of course if you get
lake effect snow, no problem. You'll just have to worry about drying
winds!

Newt


--
Newt

Travis,

I don't believe I said that!! I meant to say if the BERM is east to west or north to south it will make a difference as to how much sun the shrubs and flowers will get.

Thanks for catching that,
Newt

Spitz,
A foot or two isn't enough to plant shrubs or trees. You will either have to level the berm or add more to it. Don't know what to tell you about the wind other then you may need to stake the trees for a couple of years so their roots can anchor them.


I have no clue what you mean about driving deep roots to the level of the rest of the land, but in a 'berm' that is only a foot or two wide, it doesn't sound doable. You may need a consult with a landscape designer.

As to pests, I would suggest you choose plant material that tends not to be bothered by pests. Native plants would do best if this is your worry. Don't choose some exotic that could have problems. That is why I made the plant material suggestions that I did. Many are natives or tend to be hardy.

Newt

So the berm is bad, it runs north and south on the west edge of the
property. Yes it is tall an narrow. Funny a large mulberry has
voluteered right on top of it. What I meant by the driving deep roots
is that this berm is so tall and narrow that I was concerned that the
plants wouldn't reach enough moist soil with out deep roots. Thank
again for working through my confusion.

Spitz

Spitz, you are very welcome. You will want to dig that mulberry out yesterday! The longer you wait to plant the more you will have to deal with invasives. Mother nature doesn't like blank spaces and she will fill it with plants of her choice, not yours.

With the berm running north and south on the west side, you should have full sun on both sides, with the stronger sun on the west side of the berm.

Plants that like good drainage will appreciate the raised height of the soil. You might want to consider having it leveled and widened at the top for planting and easier maintenance. You might be able to decrease the angle of the slope as well. That way you could put the evergreen trees on the top and the shrubs, and any other plant material, on the slope. You could either rent a mini bobcat or have it done by a pro. You may also need to plant some groundcovers so you won't have weed problems over time. It will also give the area a more finished look. Try and pick 3 or 4 natives (you don't want too many or it will look too busy), or the creeping thymes, that won't invade the world and will help make maintenance easier for you. They'll help to hold the soil in place on the slope and keep weeds at bay. The native Chrysogonum virginianum aka 'green and gold' isn't evergreen but will surely keep out the weeds. I've found that it's only real requirement is to make sure it isn't covered with wet leaves in the winter. For your evergreen trees, it would make a lovely carpet.
http://classygroundcovers.com/item--...y-Pint%7D--155
http://www.tripplebrookfarm.com/ipla...rysogonum.html

Newt