Quick growing tree as privacy screen

[Shanna-like-Banana]

Looking for suggestion from anybody who has luck planting quick growing trees as a privacy screen between homes.

We need something to plant along the back portion of the fence in the back yard. We would need to plant about 6-8 spaced out.

We're not to happy with how the builder ended up developing the topography of the lots next to and behind us. Our home was built first, then the home catty-corner behind us, well the builder just pushed the excess soil from that site to the behind us neighbors lot, and then packed it down. (The home to the right of us ended up needing a retaining wall between our lots, due to the same pushing excess soil from other sites and packing it down.)

So the rear of their 1 story home falls just in line between the 1st & 2nd floor of our home. The backs of our homes mirror each other. So pretty much when ever they are on their back deck, they are looking down into our backyard / kitchen windows.

Not to mention in the almost 5 years they have lived there, they have spoke to us approx 3 times. So it's rather awkward when we're eating dinner on the back patio and they are sitting at their dinner table facing the back, looking down on us eating dinner.

We don't have a very deep backyard, and we'll need to not plant it too close to the fence so that it doesn't grow up and hang over into their yard.

We're looking for something that grows quick, but not too too tall, since we'd like to maintain whatever is planted. And also nothing with a very large trunk, since we'll have to plant a row of them spaced out, and not to take away too much of our yard. So more of a slender trunk that fans out in the middle section.

I was looking into bamboo. It grows fairly quick, makes a good privacy screen, different species grow to different max heights, but the cons would be that some species are invasive and will grow off dropped sprouts in the different areas of your yard/ grow in neighbors yard.

I also looked into Lelyand Cypress, but those seem a little thin and we'd need like 20 of them, or would take 6-8 year to group to the circumference needed to do any good.

 

[indygirl99]

What about Arborvitae?
http://www.gardenersnet.com/tree/arborvitae.htm

 

[MomofKatie]

Leyland Cypress. We planted two 24 inch tall ones on our fence line about 7 years ago. They are now easily 15 feet tall and cover about 5 feet across. They keep their foliage all year, and are excellent for blocking the view of the neighbors.

 

[Arkansan]

Forsythia--blooms bright (daffodil) yellow in spring, then green leaves all summer or butterfly bushes. We planted butterfly bushes on the side of a screen porch in one home and they went from 2' tall to 6' tall in a year! We cut them back to about 4' in the Spring (or maybe Fall, we don't live in this home anymore) and they were 8' the next year. They also attract butterflies, but they aren't a true tree. I love both these plants.

 

[minnie mum]

How high would the mature height of your hedge have to be to screen you from your neighbors? No point in recommending a tree that tops out at 10 feet if you need something 15 feet tall. And you don't want something that grows 30 feet tall if 10 feet will suffice. How much sun does this area get? How long is the length of fence you want to cover? Different trees have different mature widths, so you would space them differently when planting them.

 

[NotUrsula]

I'd go with an evergreen; forsythia is just going to be bare branches in winter. An arborvitae or a holly should work well year-round; which would be better would depend upon your climate and the amount of sun.

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

We already have a 6 foot privacy fence, and it's like it's not even there.

The yard is 60 feet wide, but we'd concentrate more density on one side (left) of approx 25 feet across, obviously we'd like some balance, and we could add more trees intermittently on the other side to achieve that balance a little later on.

I would guestimate we would need between 15-25 feet in height to make a noticeable difference.

We have two sucky scrub pines in the yard already. One is to the far right about 5 feet from the fence and the other the builder left is in the dead center of the yard right on the property line. I mean literally right smack dab on the property line. The fence builder had to leave a notch out of the fence on the property line to accommodate the roots.

The sun is practically all day exposure. There are so few other trees in the surrounding yards and the way the houses are positions there is very little shadow cast.

I did happen to look into the Thuja giant ? which as far as I can tell is an arborvitae ? The concern I had with those is that from the pics I've seen they tend to look fullest at the bottom, which we already have a 6 foot privacy fence, so I wonder if those lower limbs could be trimmed to have a more exposed trunk and still have the fullness at the middle section and top

 

[minnie mum]

Your local nursery ( NOT the garden department of the nearest big box store) will be your best resource for trees that are suited to your area. Youll want an evergreen tree, not something that will be bare of leaves all winter.

Magnolias or Holly are hardy in your area, I believe, but are very slow growing.

Many of the Thuja varieties could fit your needs. They can grow over 15 feet tall but are fastigate or columnar, rather than pyramidal, in shape, getting to only 3-4 feet wide at maturity. They don't require trimming or pruning.

Leland Cypress are very fast growing, but are pyramidal in shape and can get very wide and tall without annual heavy trimming.

As a rule, do not prune out the lower branches of conifers. It just ruins the tree. And most Thujas don't have a central trunk anyway.

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

We have a fantastic nursery less than a half mile from our home. We've used them for all of our other trees, shrubs, annuals, etc.

Last time I looked at their tree prices they were very expensive. There is another good nursery on the other side of the lake, we may check them out this weekend.

Thanks for the ideas !

 

[MolonLabe]

The giant thuja (sp) is an arborviate (sp I don't feel googling their spelling, lol).

They make great screen and hold their foliage year round. They do get more narrow at the top (slightly) but you'll get 20~ feet out of them. To buy anything that will be viable in a reasonable amount of time you'll need to drop $40-50 for 6-7' ones. They can grow a foot a year, a little more depending on your climate and if you water / fertilize them properly.

For real height a white pine works wonderfully but it doesn't sound like your yard would support a couple of trees of that size.

Things like this make me so glad I moved out of the subdivision. I'm never going back to living that close to someone again.

Quite a few of the trees in my "yard" die off but it's not like it really matter much, we're about 200 yards off the road and our closest neighbor is directly across the street and his house is a good 300 yards away. You can barely make out his barn in the background on the right hand side of the picture-

I'm NEVER going back to living piled up on top of a bunch of people again. I don't care what it saves me on my commute, it's just not worth it.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

How much width area do you have to plant in? Any pics? That would help.

I would probably do a mix of trees and evergreens, since it sounds like you do not want to block your privacy fence with a wall of green.

 

[Gracie09]

Do not do bamboo! First it may actually be illegal. Second it takes over everything and it impossible to get rid of or prevent from spreading. My parents neighbors planted it and it started taking over their backyard, my parents back yard and the wooded area behind them. Eventually my parents and their other neighbor called the town and the bamboo neighbor was fined and had to spend $$$ to remove the bamboo. It involves lots of digging and chopping of roots and there is still some so every few months he has to have someone come in to take care of it.

 

[anniemae]

What about Arborvitae?
http://www.gardenersnet.com/tree/arborvitae.htm

Just be aware that deer LOVE Arborvitae. I mean its like an "Open" buffet sign. So many people in my town have dead, destroyed, brown arborvitae from the deer munching on them. Wish we knew before we planted a bunch as a privacy fence between our neighbors. We are going to dig them up and replace them with a deer resistant trees.

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

Lucky for us, we have very little to no deer at all.

I haven't seen a live deer in years. Not that they couldn't just jump over the fence, we just hardly have any

 

[PlaneJoy1]

I am looking at these:

http://www.4seasonsnurseries.com/detail.asp?pid=6765

They have other varieties as well.

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

I am looking at these:

http://www.4seasonsnurseries.com/detail.asp?pid=6765

They have other varieties as well.

I had been looking at those as well ! I've looked at the several times. But I can't seem to find a nursery around here that carries them, or has anything larger than a seedling.

I had also looked at the Willow Hybrid

 

[minnie mum]

A couple of thoughts if you are contemplating deciduous trees. Consider their mature width for 2 reasons.
1. If you are planting close to the fence, 1/2 of the tree will be overhanging the neighbours property. Will they have an issue with this? Note in most places, they would have the right to cut back overhanging branches to the property line.
2. Tree roots generally extend out to, or past the leaf line. Are these roots going to interfere with a septic field or potentially heave patios or sidewalks or suck moisture away from other plantings?

Both poplars and willows are known to be dirty trees. Meaning their wood is very weak and prone go breaking and strewing around branches after heavy rains or wind. Their root systems are very aggressive as well, and you don't want them anywhere near septic systems or water lines

 

[The Mystery Machine]

A couple of thoughts if you are contemplating deciduous trees. Consider their mature width for 2 reasons.
1. If you are planting close to the fence, 1/2 of the tree will be overhanging the neighbours property. Will they have an issue with this? Note in most places, they would have the right to cut back overhanging branches to the property line.
2. Tree roots generally extend out to, or past the leaf line. Are these roots going to interfere with a septic field or potentially heave patios or sidewalks or suck moisture away from other plantings?

Both poplars and willows are known to be dirty trees. Meaning their wood is very weak and prone go breaking and strewing around branches after heavy rains or wind. Their root systems are very aggressive as well, and you don't want them anywhere near septic systems or water lines

Sounds like you are in the business? I work in a nursery.

I am having a hard time figuring out why OP would want to plant all one thing along the fence, you know? Getting vase shaped deciduous growing trees and mixing them with evergreens would be better but then again a wall of green does not sound appealing to me to look at.

But that is just me as there are tons of options out there.

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

Looking for suggestion from anybody who has luck planting quick growing trees as a privacy screen between homes.

We'll need to not plant it too close to the fence so that it doesn't grow up and hang over into their yard.

The main reason we want all the same thing is because we're not entirely sure we want to live her much longer and don't really care to put the effort and expense to coming up with a different plan.
But we would like some privacy in the mean time. I could easily see us moving in the next 3-4 years.

We're just in the looking around stages, to see if it's even worth doing.

Thank you to both of ya'll have given some great ideas for us to look into

 

[nkereina]

My parents lined their backyard with arborvitae for many years. It did provide great privacy but required quite a bit of upkeep. They needed to be fully trimmed 1-2 times per summer, and they had about 15 of them so it was a multi-day chore. I also found they gave off a strong odor and attracted little bugs that were always buzzing around. I also didn't think they were as visually appealing as something like bamboo or ornamental grasses. I think they're relatively slow growers. One of my parents' bushes died and they replaced it and it was at least a few seasons before it was the same size as the others. You'd be looking at a few seasons before arborvitae was the right height to provide ample privacy.

Not sure how big of a space you're looking to block, but I saw on Pinterest someone who bought large planters and put large ornamental grases in them to create a "privacy wall". You could move them around and the planters were tall so it was instant height, rather than waiting for them to grow.