Honeysuckle

We have neighbors, about 125' from our property, who have pigs. The smell is awful when the wind is from their direction. I want to plant a fragrant shrub like Honeysuckle but can not find shrubs, all I find are vines. I would be planting the shrub about 10' into the woods. Or do you any other ideas to mask the odor? It is so bad I cannot set out in my gazebo.

I'm pretty sure the really strong and pretty smelling honeysuckles are vines not shrubs. There are shrubby honeysuckles but the strong smelling ones I've run across are all vines. Unfortunately many (if not all) of the pretty smelling vine honeysuckles tend to be invasive so you may not really want them. I'm also not sure if the smell would be enough to cover up pig smell--I suspect that's going to be a tough one to manage. Maybe you could talk to your neighbors--I'm not sure if there's anything they could do to clean up better but if you talk to them maybe there's something they could do differently that would help.

I appreciate your information. Do you know of ANYTHING that could maybe lessen the odor? The wind does not always come from their direction.

You present a situation for which it is difficult to propose a solution.

The pig farm is a constant. Shrubs - or almost any woody plant - will only flower (and thus provide fragrance) for a relatively brief period in the rather short growing season in Smallwood NY - probably a zone 5/6 area?

Couple that with the intention of planting "about 10' into the woods". Woody plants generally flower much less in shadier conditions (except species that only really want to grow in shade), so planting in the woods will actually produce less flowers for fragrance.

Being in upstate NY (or nearly), you probably use your gazebo for a limited portion of the year. Plants that flower and/or provide fragrance outside this period will be of less value for your goal. Here's what you might consider doing to make use of your yard more pleasant.

Determine the optimum dates that you spend most of the time in your yard. Then, make a list of as many fragrant flowering plants that bloom during this period (include trees, shrubs, vines, as well as herbaceous annuals and perennials) as you can. Start thinking of composing your landscape to include as many of these choices as you can fit, and that create an extended season of color and fragrance that will do the most to deter the unpleasant conditions that you experience. I'd have to believe that members of the Rosa family or Lilium would contribute greatly to this situation.

NOTE: the closer you are to the pleasant fragrance, the less you may notice the unpleasant fragrance. So, putting fragrant vines, shrubs, or herbaceous plants close to your gazebo (or whatever your activity areas are) will provide you more value than across the yard or in the woods. Concentration of smell (rather than diffusion) is your friend. Imagine how bad it is standing in the pig's pen versus your backyard, as a rule of thumb.

I bet contributors here could begin recommending more fragrant plants than you could possibly grow, and cover all the seasons that you want some relief (including with a foot of snow on the ground in January - that would be Hamamelis mollis).

You might also post this question over on the Northeast Gardening Forum, with a link to this thread. Lots of good gardeners there, and quite a few with farms and farming experience.