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Living Wall

AngieS80
9 years ago

We need to plant a row of tall hedges to serve as a living wall along the back wall of our property. Basically the back wall is 160 feet long and we back to a decently busy street. We'd like to block weather, noise, etc etc etc.

Our local nursery suggested a mix of photinia (I know a lot of people hate this one, but around here it works well), purple hopseed bush, and silverberry olive martini eleagnus. They advised against using one single kind of bush in case something gets to it, that way it's not alllll taken out by a disease or whatever.

Do any of these NOT make a good living wall type bush???

I'm thinking of doing 8 of one kind, 4 of one of the others, and 3 of the other and arranging them in some sort of pattern. Or is putting them in a pattern dumb?

Basically like this, where all the 1's are the same bush, 2's the same bush, 3's the same bush...

1 2 3 1 1 1 2 3 2 1 1 1 3 2 1

Notice the pattern is symmetrical on both sides. Our yard is not rectangle, so I'm not sure how symmetrical would look...

Comments (18)

  • PRO
    Yardvaark
    9 years ago

    "Our yard is not rectangle, so I'm not sure how symmetrical would look..." Can you show it?

  • catkim
    9 years ago

    Plants do not block noise. Concrete block fencing will deflect noise.

  • AngieS80
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Give or take it goes like this.

  • PRO
    Yardvaark
    9 years ago

    This helps, but was hoping you could show the scene in some overlapping photos.

  • AngieS80
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I could. LOL. But it's literally flat and dirt...well beyond the patio.

    Purple is fence. Blue is brick wall, fence height. We border a street back there.

    It's a new (well was...we've been here 3 years now) build...so literally just dirt openness. We haven't planted a thing. :)

  • PRO
    Yardvaark
    9 years ago

    What lies beyond the yard boundaries is what is of interest. Aren't there objects of various heights that need to be screened?

  • AngieS80
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    At this point my concern is the back wall. Beyond the side fences are neighbors yards. Beyond the fence on the left is a neighbor that planted a row of trees along their side of the fence...tall...something like redwoods. The neighbor on the right has nothing planted, like us. Beyond the back wall is the city's landscape plantings...bushes and trees and stuff...nothing particularly ugly or pretty...and everytime they get tall enough to think that we may not have to worry about planting a solid wall of bushes, they chop them down part way. Across the road used to be a field, which I didn't mind looking at before, but they graded it out and are building houses there now. We don't want to look at those houses from our 2nd floor, which is why I was looking for things that are going to be roughly 15 feet tall. We can't really see the houses while in the backyard itself.

    We want the wall of hedges to block the view of the houses across the road...and to block wind...etc etc etc.

  • PRO
    Yardvaark
    9 years ago

    Without seeing must be vague. To start, I don't care for the mixing arrangement you proposed, thinking it will look weak and contrived. Would suggest you keep the like shrubs/trees in groups of their kind. Could be 2 kinds (plus trees if desired) where one material flanks another, or of 3 different materials. I would try to compensate for the angled yard shape by filling the left side with more material. Given the height you need to screen for, would avoid Elaeagnus. It will eat the whole yard by the time it's 15' ht. Also, would use 15' material at the center group and taller material at each end.

  • AngieS80
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Eleagnus would come out how far? 15ft?

    Our lot is almost a quarter acre, so we have quite a bit of yard, but yes, I would like a good amount of grass so how much of the yard the bushes will eat up is a concern.

    A friend of ours have the Photinia, and they prune theirs to be 5x5 (?-that's a guess) and as tall as it naturally gets, but they trim up the sides for it to be 5x5ish...or maybe 5x8 or something, but definitely doesn't come out more than 5 feet deep.

    I was also asking about trees that turn colors in the fall but don't spread super wide. I was thinking about putting one of those in the corner where you drew circles, but was planning on 1. There is a shed in the lower left corner of the drawing, that I did not draw, but it only goes as far back as the house. Thinking of putting a matching tree there.

    Wish I could figure out how to use your pic, draw on it, and post it, like you did. How do you do that? That would help.

  • AngieS80
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Based on your suggestions this is what I'm thinking. I'm not sure what I would plant around the tree on the left or what to plant in the right corner either.

  • PRO
    Yardvaark
    9 years ago

    to answer your question I open the drawing in Microsoft Paint and draw on it there. I guess you found it or another photo-editing program.

    You must live in an area where where Photinia is not plagued by disease. It is a much prettier plant when it's top is allowed to flower

  • AngieS80
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    What do you suggest for around the tree? Where you drew a bush around the 3 trees??? Something short?

    Photinia does well here except for some sort of blight. I see it all over though. Our friends love it and never have had issues with it.

  • zzackey
    9 years ago

    Eleagnus would be my choice. Can you deal with frequent pruning? It grows like crazy.

  • PRO
    Yardvaark
    9 years ago

    What would grow below those trees depends on what the trees are and on their form and if there's anything on the other side of the line nearby. Without being able to see the site, I can't suggest. The "trees" could also be tall evergreen shrubs with lower shrubs facing them but not below them.

  • AngieS80
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I stood where you said to stand to take pics....

    The left side looking out is on the BOTTOM and the right side looking out is the TOP pic.

    There is a bit of space in the middle of the two pics that got cut out of the pics...must be why photoshop wouldn't merge them all...

  • PRO
    Yardvaark
    9 years ago

    I'm not trying to present what you should do, but ideas of some things you could do. Because of the gap in the picture, I've no idea how you would arrange groups, but you'd want to pay attentions to the pilaster pattern of the wall ... presumably there is more than the one shown in the picture. I think it's going to be more interesting if you use more forms than just large shrubs. Trees with groundcover below can make a nice grouping that extends the screening height of the wall without just placing another "wall" of shrubs in front of it. Pinnacle forms work well for marking the corners of the yard. I can see that for much of the screening you need, the neighbors are going to take care of it for you. So take advantage of that and not feel like you need to wall yourself in. They've got a pretty good head start in some cases. These are just ideas to think about in a search for your solution.

  • AngieS80
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Ya, you are right, the neighbor there on the left planted a lot of trees. Like they literally have a forest in their yard. With their pool. Bet it's fun to clean that sucker. LOL. BUT...that's why I'm mostly worried about what to do along the back wall. It borders a busy-ish street. The plants beyond the wall are city-maintained and every time they get tall enough that I think we don't need a solid wall ourselves, they chop stuff down to half the height. :(

    There is only one pillar thing there along the wall. You added in just the right things for the gap in the photos...more wall, more dirt.

    Our patio is rectanlge with those corner planter boxes. I should probably make a real nice grouping straight out from that opening between the two corner planters. I feel like this photo bends our house into a U shape, LOL!

    What kind of trees like those keep their leaves? We need tall stuff all along the wall...all year round. We do not want to look at the houses across the street behind our house from the 2nd floor of our house. It used to be a nice field. Now it's packed with houses.

    We really do want something to form a wall along the back brick that will stay green all year. I'm just struggling with what to plant, where to put it, and how far out it comes from the wall because I'd like to plant smaller things in front of the tall things without eating up all the yardspace.

  • PRO
    Yardvaark
    9 years ago

    You gave the example of Photinia ... where unaffected by blight problems it makes an excellent small multi-trunk tree. You might explore what viburnums grow in your area. And you might try to get recommendations for other small evergreen trees from the forum that applies to your region.