About a year ago, we found out that there was going to be a house built out in our front yard. (Well, not really our front yard. More like 100 yards in front of us–but there’s nothing in between us, so it’s a fairly big change to our view.) Anyway, it’s built now, and it’s a very nice house and all, but . . . I’d really rather be looking at something else. Yes, it could have been a trailer or something, but as long as I have all that space between us, it seems like a darn shame not to put something there that (within a few years) will be nice and big and bushy and obstruct most of the house from view.
That’s where you come in, hopefully.
Denisa and I went off to look at some tree candidates on Monday, and we have a few in mind. Allow me to run down the potential candidates.
- White Pine–Native to Maine. It grows about a foot a year and can get really bushy really fast. However, once it gets beyond a certain height, it seems like it might start thinning out some–isn’t quite as good of a screen.
- Norwegian Fir–Bristly and not as fast growing. Can be really dense though, and stays dense throughout its life.
- Balsam Fir–Native to Maine. It doesn’t grow all that fast, and it doesn’t get too bushy. Not bristly, but gorgeous once it’s nice and big. I like the look of this tree the most once it’s mature–the trick is all the years it will take to get it there.
So how about it, readers? Any of you know trees well? Any other suggestions? I’m thinking about getting a few white pines, as well as some balsam firs, and then essentially planting a copse of trees in my front yard. I might have to fill in some patches later with shrubs, but that’s okay. A big bonus would be that I wouldn’t have to mow all that space anymore. Mowing is a waste of time, in my opinion. The less I have to do it, the better.
Another question for you–do you think I have to worry at all about ticking off my neighbors? I don’t want to seem . . . unneighborly, but I’d rather look at trees than look at them. It’s not like I’m building a giant model of
Devil’s Tower in my front yard or anything. (“This means something.”) Thoughts?
Most of the trees at my parents’ house are white pines. They are easy to grow, but not the most attractive. We learned after the first few that they aren’t good Christmas trees unless you want to spend a lot of time pruning (not that that was your intention). I say get a mix and plan to thin them out later based on what seems to be working.
Incidentally, until they get big enough, you have to mow around them, which is much more time consuming than mowing a plain old lawn. I got a fair number of nasty scratches from driving the riding mower too close to the trees. White pines are less scratchy than the firs if that is an issue. Totally worth the wait to not have to mow in 5-10 years, but expect some additional mowing effort to start.
For the other question, definitely mention it to the neighbors. Privacy is good for both parties and maybe they have a tree preference. We realized after chopping down a bunch of invasive honeysuckle that it was providing a screen between our neighbors and us. They could have told us that if we mentioned it to them ahead of time.
-RG