Suggestions Please - Page 4

Thuja Occidentalis= American Arborvitae, therefore your common Emerald Green Thuja is Emerald Green Arborvitae = deer food.

One problem with some Eastern Red Cedars/ Juniperus Virgininian, they can be hosts  of a fungal parasitic disease called Cedar Apple Rust, and you can have some scarey looking problems, especially if you have fruit trees! 

Bamboo is so INVASIVE, don't go there!

Really, no one goes near my "prickly boarder", the kids learn not to kick their soccer balls there pretty darn quick! On the other side, with the neighbors we like, we have kindler gentler evergreens, like pines, hemlocks etc., Rhodies, flower trees etc. 

You have to decide if you want a formal boarder, natural or whatever....I  like variety and a more natural look, but my friend and other neighbor says that's just because I'm a lazy gardener! 

Missbeeb, my nosy neighbor set a camera to watch me, and I made sure to scatch my nose with my middle finger every chance I got.

Kelly,

I am an arborist.  Firstly, to grow most evergreens you need complete sunlight.  8-12 hours or more.  The evergreens that grow in the shade (hemlock) are very thin and easy to see right threw.  If you don't have complete sunlight than you are waisting your time and money on evergreen conifers.  There are many deciduous trees that like the shade but they don't have any leaves during the winter.  Secondly, the next thing you need to know is your soil type.  If it is a clay soil than you are very limited in what you can use to cedars (which don't repell insects while living, seed ticks love cedar trees).  White pines only work in complete sun and sandy, well drained soils.  I don't think cypress works up there, but I may be wrong.  Do not pick a tree that is at its northern range for cold tolerance.  What is already growing natively when you go for a walk in the woods?  This is your best bet.  And don't plant the trees too close together when young or you are risking none of them doing well as they crowd each other out and compete for nutrients and water.  Some of the previous suggestions with pictures are trees that can be needy, brown easily from dog urine, and are very attractive food for deer and other wildlife (sometimes getting totally eaten up during a heavy snow winter when other foods are hard to find).

Kelly

               
Cedar(yellowish, top left,) Mixed Spruce boarder             Same trees minus the cedar on my North side

Some of these trees were Xmas trees at one time, and once we got a great sale when a Xmas tree farm was thinning their mountain and sold babies for $15 a few years back.


These are my  "bad" neighbors' Arborvitae, with their deer banquet cuts.

Anything that grows in my backyard should have no problem growing in MI. 

And Missbeeb, you are 100% correct, as with any fighting, it is not worth feeling the hate. I don't.... anymore! LOL, but in my case, we are just used to not chitchatting and we seem to like it like that! 

WOW, thanks for all the suggestions everyone!!!! I appreciate it :-) I will be sure to check out all the links that everyone was so kind to give me.

GFujioka, no way in Hell would I give this whack job a puppy. He already has a Chesapeake Bay Retriever that he doesn't watch or take care of.

Just to let everyone know, My dog's do not run loose on their own unless I am out there watching them. I have always done this. I never had any problems until he decided to build behind me and I found him illegally hunting on my property and putting bait on my property. I told him to stop and that is when all this crap started up. I put up no hunting signs that he tore down. I had a land survey done b/c he was on my property, and he took out some of the land survey stakes. The way he came over to introduce himself is he busted through my door. Me being single and all I could not stop him either though I tried. This is another reason why I have not called social services. Not only am I afraid of my dog's being shot or poisoned, but I am also afraid of him busting in again and this time with a gun, etc. b/c of me calling social services. His girlfriend and her son do not live there, at least not yet.  He is constantly calling animal control on me, and they obviously know he is whacked. They have seen my dog's and know they are licensed and have no problem with me or my dog's. He has called the sheriff on my dog's as well. They came out timed my dog's barking and they said it was a waste of their time b/c my dog's only barked for 4 minutes, and the sheriff was at the end of my driveway opening and closing his door to get them to bark. I don't intend on provoking this guy at all, just want to be left alone.

With that being said, I do have 2 pine trees that were planted in my front before I moved here, I think they might be blue spruce don't know. I also have about 6 different kind of pine trees on the side of my home. The ones on the side I don't know what kind they are but can take picture's of them to show you later. I don't like them b/c they come to like a point and when the snow falls on them they split into 4 and stay that way. I had to tie them all together just so they would look some what normal again. I am in a very wooded area, so I hope b/c the pine trees I have in the front are growing maybe the ones I want to plant along my property line would too.

beetree, I really like how you have your setup. Just so you know your not alone, I am also a lazy gardener :-)

I will also check out the Dept of Agriculture here too. That gives me some kind of hope.

If anyone needs to thin out their evergreen population please think of me :-))

Thanks again for all of the suggestions, keep them coming!!!!

You can also try placing an ad for unwanted trees/bushes on craigslist or freecycle: www.freecycle.org/

Okay, tree 101, Spruces are not pines, but they both are evergreen. If you want prickly go Spruce, Juniper, Holly, even Firs, if you want friendly, go pine, hemlock, rhododendron (which is actually a small tree!). If you are in doubt-- -find any kid under the age of ten and ask him or her if this is a fun tree. if they say NO, you have a "prickly" kind.    

Also I abhor "topping" trees, and unless you want yearly maintenance on your to do list, don't do it to your evergreens! Once you cut the leader on a Spruce, you end up with really ugly trees. People do it to hemlocks to make hedges, but lately no one is planting them because of the Wooly Alphid (another invasive Japanese bug) that is attacking them and killing them. You can spray, but what the heck, I'm against that too, except for dire circumstances.

Get the kind of pines that your state forestry plants for logging, they grow fast and prickly, wonderful on prying eyes, stagger them with the nice cypress, or cedar on your side of the fence. They will intermingle nicely until your smaller, landscape choice picks up growth. As the bigger pines grow, Your view will remain appealing to you, as the higher pines outgrow them.( I have spent in the lanscape business, design and planting. I work in a greenhouse). Hell, throw a couple of rhododendrons in the mix of staggering. Evergreens with beauty to boot!!!