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| I am looking for some help. I just purchased a new home, and a streetlight that is actually behind my property will be unfortunately lighting up my backyard as well. I was hoping to find a good tree to screen it out with these things in mind:
a) I live in Ohio, so I would most likely want a conifer to be able to screen it for the winter months. b) The streetlight, due to the elevation of the street behind me is actually on a hill and is elevated about another 16 feet (the tree would have to be decently tall). c) This tree does not have to be by the house, and I would like it to be fast-growing (for obvious reasons). Can anyone help me? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by gardener365 IL 5/6 (My Page) on Mon, May 28, 12 at 8:53
| I see two options: Norway spruce (Picea abies) 'Green Giant' (Thuja plicata x Thuja standishii 'Green Giant') I'd probably go with as large of a 'Green Giant' as you can find. You'll get 2-3' of growth per year, once the roots have established. Dax |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Mon, May 28, 12 at 11:13
| you do not mention the size of the yard ... GG will have a very large footprint.. though give you the height ... but of what worth is that.. if it takes up your whole yard ... ken |
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| Man, you hit on a sore spot. Nuisance lighting. I used to drive by a sweet little house when I went in to town. A city owned structure (used for storage) across the street decided to put up some lighting, so went with wall mounted flat shoe box designs on the exterior wall about six feet off the ground. It projects light in all directions, but especially directly ahead. I can only imagine the illumination that house gets, especially in their bedrooms. Not everybody appreciates having their property lit up like a baseball stadium at night, and it would preclude them ever trying to sleep with a window open. The purpose of a street light is to illuminate the public walkways and streets. Not the inside of your house, or your lawns and gardens. Streetlights can be shielded so that their glows are limited to a cone of light under the area they are supposed to be illuminating. Any chance you can run this by the proper governing body for a retrofit instead of sacrificing your property for a tree large enough to screen the glare? I feel for you. |
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| I served on a city board where street lighting became a very 'hot ' topic. We wrote it into the city ordinances that all future lighting had to be properly shielded and that existing lights had to be retrofitted within three years. Street and security lighting should be focued and not allowed to flood the surrounding neighborhood OR sky with glaring light. This is alsov called light pollution and has been determined to be more than an annoyance but an real environmental and health issue. |
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- Posted by gardener365 IL 5/6 (My Page) on Tue, May 29, 12 at 6:46
| Good to know. Dax |
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- Posted by krycek1984 6a/Cleveland (My Page) on Tue, May 29, 12 at 18:52
| Norway Spruce is nice...always had an affinity for them, their form is beautiful. Would they do well in Cinci? I know they do fairly well here. |
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| Norway spruce are a beautiful tree in their prime, but I personally would avoid planting one anywhere near a house. Over the years, whenever we've had bad wind storms or sever thunderstorms and I go out in the local area and see the damage, by far the most likely species of evergreen to be uprooted out of the ground is Norway spruce, I would say about 4 to 1 against the next most likely, which is Colorado Spruce. I have to say I believe this to be real and not just some kind of "confirmation bias" on my part, because Colorado Spruce are actually quite a bit more widely planted here in Suburbatory than Norway Spruce. |
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- Posted by schaeferb09 none (My Page) on Thu, Jun 7, 12 at 10:34
| Thanks for helping everyone. I went back to the house to look at the back yard again, and really there just happens to be a break or hole in the treeline that needs to be filled, and the streetlight is luckily not right on top of the back yard. I am thinking it may not need to be quite as tall, and that a type of spruce might be able to cover it (perhaps even a blue spruce, which I should have the space for). Of course, I'll always take other suggestions. |
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