Planting trees in a former pasture, now mowed

This is my first time on this forum. I am hoping some of you may be able to come up with ideas for me, because I really do not have any.

Here is the situation: Our property line runs through a big field that has been mowed for many years, twice a year, I think. I would like to create a living fence or barrier between the two properties. I was thinking of trees that don't need maintenance (except the first year or two).

As I said, I don't know anything about selecting, planting and after-care. And how should they be protected when DH mows in the area where they are?

I cannot think of enough questions to ask you now, so I am hoping that after there are a few responses I can come back and ask some more.

Let me describe a little more about the general lay-out. We are in Zone 7a. The property border runs North to South above a shallow depression through which runs a wet weather stream and which runs into a pond. It is frequently windy here. We have deer.

Thank you for hopefully sharing advice and experience.

This message was edited Feb 11, 2007 5:20 PM

Clementine,

I'm not sure if you are wanting an evergreen barrier but if not, 'Shawnee Brave' Baldcypress would grow well, from the wet area into the dry area. Being upright in form, it would hang out over the pasture. It's very tolerant of abuse. The city of Chicago is using it as a street tree since it can handle drought and compacted soils. I don't think deer would bother it unless to "rub" on them. Leave them low-branched to hedge all of the way to the ground. Mulch a strip several feet wide out from the trunk to discourage the DH from trying to mow all of the way up to the base. Since you are in Zone 7, I'm sure that there are a number of plants that aren't popping into my mind because I don't see them regularly in IL. Perhaps someone from farther south can chime in.

Best of luck,
Ernie

Swamp chestnut oak would do well in the damp area, but they'd need a cage when young to protect from deer. You should also consider Longleaf pine, deer usually don't touch them. There is a guy on e-bay who sells longleaf pine native to NC.

Thanks to both of you. I guess I did not describe the area quite right. Where I wanted to plant is actually dry all the time and the damper area is lower down where I would not plant. I added that info because possibly the micro-climate might have an influence - what do I know? Down in the "depression" or "valley" there is often a temperature inversion and it is a few degrees cooler than hight up. The difference in elevation is about 20 feet. Maybe this was just a red herring - sorry.

I would like an evergreen barrier, but of course I will look at all suggestions, because there may be other qualities recommending a particular tree.

As an aside, my DH is raising some corkscrew willows which he will put by the little wet weather streem.

Actually, I really love to look out over the big pasture. I can often see deer, at one time we had as many as eight - and they did not bother any of my other plants - so far. But a good border will add other good qualities to the scenery and to the neighborhood.

Escambiaguy, do you mean the person in Rowland, NC? Have you dealt with them yourself?

I had to go back and look, and yes he is in Rowland. I was going to purchase from him but I found a Alabama seed source instead. Longleaf pine is also drought tolerant so it would work well in a dry spot. It is also fire resistant, so if you ever needed to burn the field off for some reason it would not damage the trees.

Long leaf pine is fast growing and will work well. Leland cypress will work and is fast. You looking for fast growing or you looking for a nice mix of trees and bushes?

Longleaf Pine sounds a super idea, but definitely avoid Leyland Cypress!

Resin

It looks like the Longleaf Pine is the front runner. We have a lot of Leyland Cypresses everywhere here. Everybody uses them here as screens, and we even have a specimen one that is very big now. But apparently (so says my DH) they are prone to disease. Anyway, since there are so many around I don't want them,

I wonder if anyone can come up with another suggestion? I suppose I could also call the county agricultural service, and when I do I will report back to this thread what they say. However, right now we have a pressing well problem to fix.

And still another question: would I plant whatever tree I get the same way I would a tree or shrub in the garden, i.e. nice big hose, compost, etc.?

Thank you all for your thoughts.

I'm thinking some magnolia's here and there would be good. A few oaks for years from now and lots of longleaf.

Don't let someone try to sell you a loblolly pine and tell you it is the same as a longleaf. Loblolly pine is a magnet for pine beetles but longleaf is more resistant (and stronger). Southern red oak, mockernut hickory, and pignut hickory mix well with longleaf pine.

You might consider Eastern Red Cedar. It is native to North Carolina and would handle the dry area once established. If allowed, it can become invasive, but is slow growing and easy to kill. They do make a good hedge. The only problem I have with this tree is the pollen. I'm higherly allergic to it.

The sexes are found on separate trees. I don't know if you can find females only. Around here some people chop down the trees as soon as it becomes apparent they are male (The tree takes on a brownish hue due to the large number of pollen sacs.) If you were to propagate the female trees by grafting, cuttings or air-layering, you could replace the male trees and eventually have an all female hedge.

http://www.ibiblio.org/pic/NCTrees/easternredcedar.htm
http://www.noble.org/Ag/nf4/BrushControl/redCedar.html
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/Spfo/pubs/silvics_manual/Volume_1/juniperus/virginiana.htm

Thanks for all the suggestions. Escambiaguy, thanks for the warning re loblolly vs. longleaf. And I think a couple of oaks sound terrific too. Don't know if I will be around for "years from now" though, CoreHHI. So much work ahead - ouch, my poor joints.

Thank you, Betty. The Eastern Red Cedar is a beautiful tree, anyway, I like it. I don't think I am allergic to it, but at my previous house it really did a number on my apple trees - I hate to spray.

So this is one more on the list to consider.

And thank you for the links, they are so interesting.

C.

I forgot you asked about protection for them. The most simple thing to do is to get some of that 4ft high metal fencing that comes on a roll. Just cut you a piece and make a circular cage, then anchor it down with some pieces of a wire clothes hanger. It wouldn't hurt to put down some newspaper covered with mulch to control weeds. Deer usually won't touch the pines but it is easy to mow them down.

OK, Clementine, it's time for a snooty northerner (well, almost) to horn into this party and jazz it up a bit. I like the ideas presented so far; I just think they don't go far enough. Let me summarize (pardons if I've excluded any).

•Taxodium distichum
•Quercus michauxii
•Pinus palustris
•whatever the name is now for Leyland cypress
•Magnolia grandiflora
•more Quercus
•several Carya
•Juniperus virginiana

Seems like a lot, but you are just getting started! Consider your screen to be a woodland, a collection, a piece of art, or simply a garden -- and then you'll be on your way. Just don't simply think of it as a wall or a line. That is only your preliminary functional consideration. It WILL be so much more.

Consider adding these, as appropriate to your taste/soils/climate/situation:

•Ilex opaca
•several other great southern evergreen tree-form Ilex
•Thuja plicata
•Quercus fusiformis or •Quercus virginiana
•several great southern-adapted Chamaecyparis
•Magnolia virginiana var. australis

These are just to placate the evergreen-ness of your desires. As you start weaving this tapestry, think about not just the foundation (or backing) to this vertical rug. Think about its face, what you are going to look deep into the eyes of for however long you imagine inhabiting this world. Think about what happens when you don't consider looks; you often end up observing the wrong end of the mule for way too long.

By the face, I mean the arrangement of plants on your side, not the neighbor. This infers that you will want to plant more than one tree/shrub deep (why, of course!). This is the fun part of a border, that you never have to end.

Plant the plainest species (and maybe most of the tallest) to the side of the neighboring property, and then begin layering in towards you the species that will like that exposure best and that you want to look at the most. Here also is the location to use plants that show off their features best against the primary evergreen screen! These plants don't even have to be screening plants themselves. Better, these should be plants that simply show off. This includes all the small flowering and fruiting trees and shrubs that can be grown in Chapel Hill, and that's a long list. Start with dogwoods, viburnums, camellias, and the azalea/rhododendron crowd, and branch out from there.

You probably don't have room for your house now, but that's OK. You'll want to be spending most of your time caring/nurturing this wonderful plant kingdom you've created.

Down here in 8b near Gainesville, Florida, the Leyland Cypress is everywhere. There is a nursery on the expensive side of Gainesville (I am a few miles east of the cheap side) that grows nothing else last I checked... imagine ten thousand plants in quart to gallon up to 15 gallon pots, all the SAME. I don't know about disease, but I know that I don't want any of the blasted trees.

Is the much-hyped Green Giant thuja any good? it's supposed to be fast, anyway.

Baldcypress grows nicely on fairly dry sites too. In a severe drought it can suffer if the soil retains water poorly. Deciduous conifer, which you may or may not like.

Eastern redcedar does well here (or rather its local subspecies, v. silicicola, formerly considered another species). The lore is that redcedar loves limestone under its soil. Certainly it does well in the Kentucky Bluegrass country, and south of here in Ocala where that is also true, but on my clayey sand with clay underneath and no actual limestone for maybe seventy feet it seems very content I have half a dozen volunteer ones on this former melon farm (no farming here for a couple decades at least), each 15 feet or more tall and in rude good health.

Quercus michauxii or Swamp Chestnut Oak doesn't demand swampiness. It is attractive, strong, and has the best white-oak wood, period, according to many woodworkers: beautiful especially quartersawn.

Ilex opaca is the tallest native holly. The leaves are not as glossy as the English holly's but roughly the same shape. Over time it can get big, and again the wood is valuable.

Might want to experiment with some non-native oaks, maybe Q. ilex (holm oak) or Q. suber (cork oak, which I think can take your climate). Or natives, but avoid the laurel oak, which is short-lived and drops a lot of dead half-rotten limbs in the decades before its death.

Maybe throw in some understory trees. Carpinus caroliniana maybe? Some dogwoods? Hop hornbeam?

If you throw in bearers of edible fruits or nuts that's a whole added set of possibilities, or can of worms...

ViburnumValley and gooley: My head is spinning with all these poetic effusions. I have wonderful visions of working and planting and tending until I drop dead.

But seriously, there are really wonderful suggestions. I had not planned on putting up a straight wall of something green and nothing else, but I have to start somewhere and since a screen seems at the moment to be the most pressing need, that's how I will have to start. On the other hand, it never hurts to start developing a more complex picture, sort of in layers: in back the tallest, and in front a couple of lower specimens with different colors, possibly flowering. Not sure about the edible angle, though, because that would require more resources, e.g. water, which is not easily available there on a regular basis.

This will be a work in (slow) progress. So, please keep watching and advising.