I've spent a couple weeks searching the forums, and have found some good ideas, but I figured it was time to write my own post. Our local utilities came through and removed a large number of trees, white pine and maple along the south side of our property. We bought this house for the woodland feel it had, and desperately want to get that back.

I borrowed some questions from another post, hopefully you guys can offer some ideas based on my scenario (z5, SE Michigan, sandy soil, 4-6 hours sun daily). We are open to some very slow growing evergreen (due to powerlines), shrubs, trees, etc:

1.) How large a property lot do you have? 1 acre

2.) How near your house would the trees be? >50ft

3.) How near the property line? depends on the plant choice, I don't want to plant large growth trees under powerlines only to do this again in 15 years.

4.) Will there be powerlines overhead? yes, local service lines on wood poles ~15ft up

5.) Do you have a septic tank & leach field, and if so how far will it be from the trees? Yes, I do not know where the leech field ends, but the tanks are about 40ft from the property line/power lines.

6.) Are you determined to plant other things under it (can impact choice of a maple, for instance)? No, we have some room north of property line, but will be encroaching on leech field.

7.) How tall do you want this to be? If your neighbor has a 2 story house with a window view overlooking your yard, that's different from 2 ranch-style single-story houses on level ground. No houses in direct view, just want some privacy from neighbors back yard.

8.) Is this just sort of a visual barrier, or do you need a dense 'I can't see them at all' hedge? Mixed, natural look is preferred. Evergreens, shrubs, flowering, some winter interest (red twig dogwood?). We don't need to make the neighbors invisible to us, just some privacy in the 80ft of wide open property line.

9.) Do you need evergreens so it remains 'solid' in winter? A mix is preferred.

10.) Do you plan to do a lot of pruning, shaping, hedging or what-have-you, or are you a 'plant it & forget it once established' person? We have full time jobs, two young kids, yet do enjoy gardening. lower maintenance is preferred, but we are not hands off either.

11.) Is this a fenced in area, or well into the city, or do deer have access to the area? We are on the edge of the country and the burbs, mostly 1+acres lots, and lots of shameless deer. Arborvitae are decimated here, and they even ate three Holly bushes we planted two years ago, to the ground.