I probably can't offer you much other than agreeing that your property could definitely benefit from some privacy screening! With the amount of space you've got to work with any look of soldiers in a row could be easily fixed with mixed plantings for volume, so I think you're heading in the right direction. How many feet from the back of the shed to the green ball and were you looking for a solid screen or just for the more offending aspects? I would tend toward the solid, myself and you may need a fair number of plants to accomplish this. Be looking for an evergreen with width as well as height for the back, a filler row with more width than height then a low accent in front... the shrubs and conifers forums could give you some plant tips. Here in MN we use a lot of Spruce, Arborvitae (deer candy), yews, and junipers - mugo's are a favorite, too. Nice accents could be Nine Bark, Burning Bush, old fashioned Hydrangeas. I'm just throwing things out with the hopes someone else chimes in...

The park's arrangement is nice, but I'd worry about the deciduous trees eventually overtaking the evergreens creating too much shade for them to thrive.

Thanks Duluth. The stretch from the shed to the ball is about 75', or maybe a little more. I was definitely thinking of something solid and evergreen along that stretch. You're absolutely correct about having lots of space and a good potential for layering, so I guess basically what I'm asking is how to accomplish a nice "back layer" with just a few species. That will be Phase One. I don't want the back layer to atract too much attention on its own, but I don't want it to be a wall, either.

I'll second Duluth in recommending the conifers forum for ideas. There have been several threads there about conifer groupings, and there are also plenty of pictures that will alert you - if you don't know already - to how varied this family of plants is. You might be tempted to go with more than two species and to mix them rather than doing single-plant-groupings.

You could also have a look at Gardening with Conifers, by Adrian Bloom.

For your particular situation I wonder if you have planned for maintenance of the back side of the planting. Or will the backside still be on your property and accessible to you? If not, you'd certainly want to begin with a backdrop of fairly columnar stuff - maybe fastigiate yews, or plum yews (Cephalotaxus), or good ol' Thujas. If you don't want a hedge fronted by other plants - which is a look I could live with, mind you - you will need to plan for keyhole views through the planting, and you should choose where those will be.

As for tips for arranging, I'd work with concepts like complementary and contrasting shapes, and equal visual weights of different groupings, and I'd also consider foliage type and colour.

You might also consider growth rates and early spacing vs. what will happen later. Those trees in the park look great now, but in a couple of years at least one of them should come out, and the remaining side of the adjacent trees may not look too hot. You could plan for this by, for example, sticking a few fast growing Thujas among the plants you really want, and taking them out as those plants get to size.

KarinL

Karin (and others), I'll check conifer forum more thoroughly, but I have a couple of follow-up questions to your response. First, the "keyhole" comment you made was in response to my saying I didn't want a hedge, right? I just meant a sheared, straight wall. I certainly don't mind a solid edge...I just don't want it too boxy and be too high maintenance.

But the bigger question is that you said I might be tempted to use more species, and mix it up more than in my original post. Is that just because there are so many cool conifers (I agree!) or because it will look better if I add more variety? I was thinking of using only a few species to provide more unity and simplicity, and because I don't want this screen to be a focal point, but if it is really easier or better to mix it up, maybe I should reconsider such a limited palette.

Well, perhaps I should have "listened" more carefully to what you were saying you wanted before suggesting that; the photo from the park is certainly clear enough. I think I might have been saying that a mix is what I would think looks better, which is really not the point here :-).

If I go back to your original question, I would almost say that you present the answer to it yourself. You've found an arrangement you like; what is preventing you from basically just copying it? You can repeat it two or three times, or split it between species. You've got almost the same amount of space, or if you use narrower species you can do the same in less space.

If you do generate your own planting scheme, I think it is commonly said that uneven rather than even numbers are best, but beyond that I don't think there are rules to govern what you are doing. Equal visual weights might be the only other thing to consider; one grouping might comprise fewer plants but grow higher, while a lower species might be used in a longer row/bigger group. Two groups of one species, one group of another, might work, but not with the single group in the middle.

I'd be quite concerned about how well things will grow in the root zones of the trees but it probably depends how deep the root system is of the particular tree in question.

KarinL

I was hoping that this thread picked up a little traction. The standard reply to a question about planting a line of evergreens as a hedge is that a mixed planting of various evergreen and deciduous plants works better, but then I never see many examples of such plantings. I looked around the conifer forum for examples, but I mostly came across planting of widely spaced conifers that looked nice, but would not provide much screening.

This is a subject that I have struggled with a little. I did create a mixed planting at my previous home, though I don't think it has really filled in enough for me to know if it was successful. Also, I did not really need much in the way of screening. I do need/want more screening at my new place, but the previous owners planted deciduous plants only along the perimeter of the backyard.

Then again I wonder if the solution for screening involves more than just planting around the perimeter. In this case haringfan seems to have more room to work with than many suburban lots.

- Brent

My good friend has hemlocks around the border of her suburban propery, and they look fabulous and provide privacy. They are also an evergreen that can grow in shade. I'd start by planting some hemolocks between the decidious trees on your property. Hemlocks get big so space them carefully so as to not damage the roots of the big deciduous trees. Hemlock trees make gorgeous elements of a privacy border, you will not regret it.

Here's an example of a mixed screen that has been very successful for us. You'd never guess that behind these plants are our nutty and nosy neighbors (and I don't mean "nutty" as in nice and fun-to-be-around).

The screen is composed of two layers planted on 10 foot centers. Plants in the back layer are evergreen and top out at 30' at maturity. Plants in the front are deciduous flowering shrubs. We repeated several species throughout (hollies, leatherleaf viburnums, ligustrum, cherry laurel), but also have alot of variety (spirea, quince, viburnum burkwoodi). We lost a few plants in the first year (indian hawthorns to deer and a blue spruce to heat/humidity stress) and a few more later to an ice storm, so we just replaced them by repeating more of the plants that were successful. The back row is also planted 10' off of the property line. This allows us to maintain the back side of the screen when needed.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:23091}}

Spazzy-

What is the white flowering shrub to the left? Also what are your midground shrubs?

Thanks

ML

Lucinda,

The white-flowering shrub to the left is Spirea prunifolia (bridalwreath spirea). The yellow-foliaged shrub is a variegated chinese privet (on the invasive plant list for my state, which had I known at the time, I probably would not have planted it; however, I've not seen any problems with seedlings either). Next down the line, flowering in red, is a Quince (some heirloom variety). Behind the quince is Viburnum burkwoodii.

You can't see it from this angle, but we mirrored the other half of the screen with plants of the same species but different cultivars of those species...another quince (C. 'Texas Scarlett'), another Spirea (Spirea vanhouttii), another Viburnum (doublefile viburnum), etc.

Thanks for getting back to me Spazzy. Handsome job.

Lucinda

That really is an inspiring border spazzycat, thanks for posting it. I got frustrated and moved on to other things, but since this thread popped back up, can you tell me what your evergreens in the back row are?

The evergreens in the back row are Ilex 'Nellie R. Stevens' (a good workhorse holly), Prunus carolinanius (carolina cherry laurel), Viburnum rhytidophyllum (which is evergreen in my zone except during harsh winters when it loses some of its leaves). I also think a Ligustrum japonica is in there as a replacement for a plant that was taken out from one of the ice storms.

How large were the specimens when you planted them and how long did it take to get to this size? I would love a border like this in my back yard, but wonder how long it would take to get there from scratch. From the size of the spirea alone I'm guessing at least 5 years but probably much more.

We planted average nursery-size container shrubs. I would say that in 3 years, we were getting some pretty good coverage. In about 5 years, it was a solid screen. All the plants we chose were moderate growers. What you see now was planted 13 years ago.

The deer did extensive overnight damage to 17 aborvitae used for a privacy border. Will they recover or not?

Thanks.

Thuja/aborvitae are not deer resistant. The deer may browse them or, during rutting season in the Fall, they use them as scrubbers to rub the felt off their antlers. They may very well recover, but you'll need to protect them in the meantime with a deer spray or drape deer netting on them. Sorry, the deer can be very frustrating.

can anyone tell me the name of the evergreens in teh third picture above?

tsheehan, those are Thuja occidentalis, and they are labeled as CV "Emerald". I suspect that is shorthand for Emerald Green, which some people say is better called cv Smaragd. Probably someone else knows more than I do about this, but if I am correct, this is a very common plant (at least here in Michigan) and you can probably find it in your area (wherever that is).

Here is a link that might be useful: Try this