Privacy Tree planting

12 years ago

hello, im new here. This is my situation. Our family lives on 2 acres and my wife and i will be buying her fathers house next door on 5 acres in about 18-24 months and selling ours. I want to plant a row of privacy trees to block off our old house from our new one as we want more privacy. Obviously, i want to plant right now so that i dont insult our new neighbors by immediately blocking them out when they move into our old house.

im thinking about green giants. they look good to me and my wife, seem cheap enough and hardy enough. i like the fast grow rate they claim.

is this a good tree for this?

should i plant staggered rows or single? (im covering areas where trees are not there. there are already some cedars and some tall hedges. im going to fill in the voids.

what size should i plant? i can get 20 1-2 ft tall 1 yr trees for about $65.00. thats about how many i need. and the size sounds good.

and finally, anything wrong with buying them of the web? dont seem to have them around locally. home depot sells them for 50 buck for a 3 footer.

i was thinking about buying from here:

http://www.anythinggreen.com/thuja-green-giant.html

thanks. i dont know much about trees, even though ive got about 15 on my property now....and will have about 50 or 60 when we move next door.

Comments (4)

dave3512
Original Author
12 years ago
one other thing, one area i wish to plant trees in is a lower area, meaning, when we get a couple of days of good rain in oklahoma, like the 4-5 inches we did last week, the area will be under about 4-6 inches of water for a few days. will this kill off the green giants?

thanks
wisconsitom
12 years ago
Well Dave, I like the GGs and I've got a few planted quite a distance north of your state! They seem to be doing fine.

As a genus, Thuja is quite tolerant of moisture. But somehow, when we go to plant trees with such tolerance, but which have spent their entire lives (To this point) in a well-drained nursery field somewhere, they can still fail. You'll just have to try it and see what happens.

Which brings me to my next point-start with the little guys. Smallish transplants pretty much always acclimate to their new surroundings better than big ones, and you're throwing an additional stress factor (Maybe) at them in those wet spots. Plus, you will have invested less should they succumb.

I bought mine from an online vendor. I think it was called Botanyshop.com. They were nice plants. Then later, I picked a few more up at a local chain garden center. All survived and, I dare say, have thrived. Three of mine are in a decidedly moist location. They haven't suffered a bit so far.

I know nothing of Oklahoma gardening though!

+oM
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dave3512
Original Author
12 years ago
one more question. once we move i plan on screening the front of our acreage with GG in staggered rows. one area has powerlines across it, about 25 feet up. ive heard that on the GG, once they reach the height you want you can cut about a foot of the leader and they will never grow up again and will only fill out at that point. is this true? i would cut the leader once the tree got about 20 feet tall.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
12 years ago
ive heard that on the GG, once they reach the height you want you can cut about a foot of the leader and they will never grow up again and will only fill out at that point. is this true?

===>>> ABSOLUTELY INCORRECT ... like any other tree.. it will put up new leaders ...

power lines are in an easement.. in theory.. it is not yours to plant in.. and as soon as the tree gets to where you want it.. the power company will come by and slaughter them.. and it will be your fault ...

IMHO.. do NOT plant there ... no one says the trees have to literally be on the property line ...

when i moved from suburbia.. to acreage.. it was a hard lesson to learn.. that i could plant 25 feet into the property.. and still have a very large yard ... dont get caught in that logic of squeezing things onto the property line.. or the easement ...

ken