Screening with Plants

If your property faces a view you would rather do without, then consider using plants to naturally screen the obtrusive scene. Plants can also block out noise, wind, and harsh weather.

I know of one homeowner whose property abutted a major highway. Not only was the view poor, but the noise was deafening. By planting three rows of dense spruce trees, both problems were solved.

Another friend of mine had a lovely neighbor who was also an untidy gardener. Each winter the corn stalks and old tomato stakes were left standing to rot. My friend planted a hedge of evergreens between the properties to amicably solve his viewing problems.

To plant a proper landscape screen, consider your needs. This will help you decide whether tall, short, narrow, or wide plants will suffice. It will also determine whether you should use single, double, straight, serpentine, or overlapped rows.

Narrow upright plants work well in tight spaces like the area between two townhouses or the driveway and your property line.

Junipers work well in narrow areas and have gray-green sharp tipped foliage and grow from 6 to 20 feet in height. Arborvitae grows as high as junipers but has yellow-green, fan-like foliage. The Taxus or Yew also works well in narrow areas. It has very dark green, one inch long, blunt needles and grows from 5 to 12 or more feet high.

Tall evergreens with wider circumference work well in larger areas such as the back yard and between property lines.

The spruce is good in open spaces, but has dark blue-green short needles, and grows from 12 to 40 feet high. Many varieties of pines grow to the same height but have longer needles amd a lighter color than most spruces. Hemlock has very soft needles, thrives in the shade, and can also grow to 40 feet in height.

A double row of trees can better screenout louder noises and harsher weather than single rows. Straight rows work well in narrow areas, but serpentine is more natural looking and more popular.

You can tell the vintage of a landscape by how the trees were planted for screening. In the 1950s most homeowners planted tall evergreens in very rigid straight rows to separate properties. By the 1960s the serpentine style was introduced and has steadily grown in popularity. The days of straight hedge rows and pine trees are numbered or gone.

The serpentine style is not a uniform curve but a freer, more informal contour. It is the most natural looking way to use plants as a sound or scene screen.

The overlap style creates a visually complete screen, however it allows for access between properties. It achieves this by using two serpentine style curves. Where one curve ends another begins, but they are separated from each other by some distance. The second then snakes its way back until it is even with the original contour, leaving a path between the two curves.

By using plants to screen property, you can block out unwanted noise or neighbors and turn poor views into visually appealing vistas.