That may have been me, last year, suggesting to someone, also in Calgary I believe, the Tower Poplar or Swedish Aspen. They need to be planted fairly close together in order to form a privacy screen but they also grow very quickly. Ask someone at the nursery, who has tree knowledge, about how they should be spaced. They will grow, however, much, much taller than 6' or 7'. More like 20'.

If I remember correctly, the past thread, discussing a screen, also had mention of several evergreens. If you wish to go that route, I also would discuss it with a good nursery person. It may be that the winds would be too drying and you would get tip kill every year, resulting in "everbrowns".

Shauna

Hi Shauna:

Thanks for responding. We went to Sunnyside the other day and asked them as well. We like those two choices but have heard to avoid Poplar because of "suckers" (I don't really know what those are but apparently they have them). We will likely go with the Swedish Aspens. I'm not sure how expensive they are, but the really big ones were $300 each. Hopefully the 4-5 foot ones won't be so much.

I think we paid about $40 for one, two years ago, that was about 6-1/2' tall. It is now about 9' to it's tallest point. I do agree that the Poplar will sucker. We had some at our old house that suckered quite badly after we moved them. Wherever the root got even slightly scratched, up popped a new tree. Suckers are new shoots of the tree, appearing either near the base of the tree or sometimes quite a distance from the tree. Many, many trees will sucker, though. The Swedish Aspens don't seem to do that so badly, although they still will produce some. You should be able to buy some small ones - 4' - 5' - for about $15 - $20. Remember, they do grow fairly quickly.

A bit of a trade-off, though, is that the columnar aspens, generally, do not have lower branches. So the tree has quite a tall trunk, about 30" - 36", which have no branches. Appearance-wise, I'm OK with them, but some people don't like that. My husband really likes them because the mower goes around them really well. He's one of those "non-gardener" types that likes things really, really easy. Dear man, though. I'll keep him.

I don't grow swedish aspens but we have some large ones here in town. They do sucker quite a bit when they mature. Nothing will grow close to them because their roots are close to the top and they suck up all the moisture. Several years ago I was going to plant some, but I changed my mind after seeing this.

Well, we don't have grass, only a 3 foot by 15 foot section of dirt to plant in. I think the good soil is about a foot or so deep, then normal soil, then clay about 2 feet below that. Keeping that in mind, they'll be competing with the caragana we planted in the same bed (exposed in a very windy, hot location).

I'm sure by this point most people are cringing :)

This might be the wrong thing to say, but I'm not so concerned with what they'll be like when they mature. It's likely we will only be in the house for another 2-3 years. The next owner can cut them down :)

If they were properly hardy for us, I would say pyramid cedars would be awesome. But they're not, they're just horrible.

What about Cotoneaster ludicus? It's a handsome hedge shrub, easy to find, grows fairly quickly and can get up to about 10' tall. Nice fall colour and berries. It also has dense branches in the winter when the leaves are off. And I think most people would think it's ornamental enough not to have to cut it down when you move out ;0) (it's you! you're the person who plants horrible stuff then moves away!) LOL

The only thing I would check on is exactly how fast it grows though, I'm not totally sure.