The circled area is what I'm trying to block. The two buildings closer are ours and we're working on "integrating" them into the landscape. We've already added evergreens and privacy fencing to block the large brick house. But, again, we don't have enough room behind our long garage before the properly line to have both evergreens and a path to drive the truck. Right now the view looks like we live back in the city! Super cluttered!

you are blocking the view.. from the deck.. where the camera is.. right???

too many peeps.. fixate on teh property line.. or as far away from the deck as possible ...

can you put a tree ... between your buildings.. and the deck??? .. where hopefully you dont need to drive???

one of the bae problems.. is that to grow a tree to height.... you need the lower branches.. for a few years ... to grow the tree to height .. etc ...

unless you have no budget constraints.. and can have a 20 footer.. brought in ... and even then.. i not sure you would get the 10 feet of height you will neeed for the truck ...

can you narrow down z5 ... its about half the Us.. and wildly divergent ... might matter ...

ken

Christine, any tree can be limbed up. Perhaps you are confusing the needs of the trees with our needs? So when you see a crew "raising up" street trees in the city, they are doing that to accommodate human needs, not because the tree needs to have this done. And it is going on all the time. Can you bounce us/me back a more detailed idea of what your concerns are? I see no problem here.

Ken, thank you for pointing out that I wouldn't be able to remove lower branches for awhile. That's something I hadn't thought about. I'm in VA - northern part of the Shenandoah Valley.

wisconsitom, I thought I made it clear with my comment about limbing up evergreens, but… to restate, I'm looking for trees which can be limbed up *without doing harm to the tree.* If there are not trees like that, then I'll have to come up with another solution. My concern is that I moved to the country to be away from the city. When I'm sitting on my deck, all I see are rooftops… not exactly country. I don't even like the look of my deck. I love my property, but hate that he keeps putting larger-than-house size buildings behind his house.

I can't plant anything obstructing my view of the piece of yard you see between the deck and my long building. If I plant in front of my long building, that will help with the view from the deck, but not the back yard.

I think you may be overestimating the "limbed up" problem.

Lots of conifers look stupid if you limb them up. (For instance, Blue Spruce). Some depend on lower branches to support the weight of the upper branches in snowy winters. However, that is NOT a universal problem. Plenty of conifers do work reasonably well limbed up. White Pine naturally lose their lower limbs. Unlike other pines, pitch pine have dormant buds...so more ability to recover from a pruning error. Unfortunately, pine tend to drop lots of pine pitch on roads. This is bad for the paint job of cars parked beneath them.

My parents have a couple limbed up Norway Spruce and Concolor Fir. They look good and seem healthy. I think that they only work aesthetically if you don't limb them up too high and wait until they are large, so they look proportional. Limbing them up may make them more vulnerable to wind...but in a very windy area my parents lost only one out of four limbed up Norway Spruce to hurricanes.

You are in Virginia. Are you sure you are in zone 5? If you were in Zone 6 you would have some broad leafed evergreen option. Broad leaved trees work better limbed up, in my experience. American Holly and sweetbay magnolia are a bit slow growing but beautiful and better with being limbed up then most Spruce. Would take a long time to reach your desired height, though.

As far as deciduous trees....you have a million options. Several oaks. Red oak, for instance. Many oaks and American beech retain some dead leaves on their branches during the winter, for a little winter screening value. A tuliptree would grow very fast, and they have flowers in the upper branches...which you could see from the deck.

Is wind a problem there?

Go see the Metasequoia at Secrest Arboretum south of Cleveland. They grow fast, live long and can be grown with lower limbs on or pruned up.

You know, on second thought, plant a few different tree species if you can. That way if an Emerald Oak Borer or Gypsy Butterfly comes by you don't loose your whole screen. The idiots in charge of my local Gateway Arch grounds failed to learn from their mistake so at least we should.

Technically, we are in zone 6a. But I live on a ridge that, yes, is really windy. My microclimate leads me to choose plants hardy to zone 5 except where they are well protected. This area wouldn't be. I have several Tulip trees in my woods and we've had a few volunteer seedlings that have grown like crazy.

American holly should work in a borderline zone 5/zone 6 environment, even without shelter. It's technically hardy to zone 5 but I don't fully trust it in a solid zone 5. Would require a lot of patience. Some magnolia varieties could work but would be risky. (Evergreen, fast growing, looks good limbed up, wind resistant...you can get any two in zone 5 but probably not all of them)

The reason I asked about wind is tuliptree...it's said to be weak wooded. But if you have them growing happily near you, you could transplant a few saplings there. You know they like your microclimate and soil. Probably the fastest results...and it has flowers you could look down on from the deck. (I'm told a problem with tuliptree is ature trees often produce most of their flowers near the top and facing up, where they can't be seen from the ground. So perfect for a spot you look down on them!)

Oak and Norway Spruce would probably do best with wind.

I'd look into oaks, Norway Spruce, white pine, tulip tree, American Holly. Is there an arboretum near you? Look for specimens of trees people have suggested to see what they look like in the real world,.

I would do tuliptree because they are so cool looking and fast growing. White pine would be a good fast growing evergreen if soil is not waterlogged or drought prone. White oak is big, fairly fast growing and can keep leaves in winter.

If you just want a quick screen, try one of: tuliptree, sycamore, cottonwood, silver or red x silver maple, dawn redwood (keep in mind there are always downsides to fast-growing)

I think Exclamation Planetree would be a perfect fit for the site or Regal Prince Hybrid Oak. Both are fast growing and can be limbed up with no real issues.

Not at all sure how I upset you, Christine. In your as well as any thread in which I choose to correspond, it is only with the intent to offer something of value. Sorry you did not see it that way. In my saying "I see no problem here", it was just that-I couldn't yet tell what you are after. Hopefully some others here have given you what you need.

wisconsitom, you did not upset me.

I hear oak is good at "compartmentalizing" (ie healing wounds) and white oak is particularly resistant to oak wilt so it would presumably take well to pruning. Also relatively good fall color. However I also heard it tends to have low branches, so possibly not the best oak for your purpose.

I do kind of like the suggestion of Regal Prince Hybrid Oak.

I don't like silver maple for this use. They are weak wooded, and thus not the best choice for a windy area. In a windy area I wouldn't go for something weak wooded unless you are getting flowers or an evergreen out of it. If you are going to risk weak wooded, go for tulip tree. Also I heard silver maple aren't the best at healing wounds, which could be a problem with pruning.

Any of these suggestions sound good to you? Who here is on the right track?

How far can you plant the trees from the truck route? How wide can the trees get before you start to have to limb them up?

wisconsitom:
There are some truly hideous monstrosities that have been produced by
limbing up spruce. Many experts say it isn't good for the tree. She's
probably seen such monstrosities or received such advice and is skittish. You probably know
more about these things then anyone. Can you think of zone 5 evergreens
that are particularly tolerant of pruning and don't look ridiculous
limbed up? Can you think of oaks that have a more upright habit, with
fewer low branches? This is a lawn tree...so it has to look decent...things that are fine in the woods might not work here.

To me, any tree "can" be limbed up if the practitioner has a good eye for it. I've seen spruce that don't look so good that way, but in other cases-where necessity ruled the day-it was done and other elements helped soften the blow, so to speak.

I also don't tend to like trees with columnar growth forms. They do not fit in better IMO. In fact, the more right angled the branch diverges from the trunk, usually the better in my view, and not just for the sake of structural stability. Take your white oak-this tree can be raised up gradually over time and all you will be left with is one which looks like a forest-grown oak. That's pretty close to perfection in my world.

One bit I should mention-when raising trees up, please do go slow. If you are impatient, much damage can be done. First, as we say all the time here, foliage is food factory for the tree, so no sense in just willy nilly lopping off branches. But more to this point, if one removes an entire "tier" of branches at one time, it can cause quite a decay pocket to form in the trunk, all in that one spot. Not good. Much better to take a go-slow approach. What's the hurry-you'll get there.

But again, there's really no large-growing tree type which cannot be raised up. And in the end, all one will have done is mimic the natural sloughing off of branches that trees in the woods have been doing since, uh, year one.

poplar - any of them.

You all have given me a lot to think about. I'll be looking up all these trees. It seems to me that I have a lot of options and should consider a mix a things.

Well, hubby decided no planting on the other side of the garage, period. :( He needs it open to drive through and doesn't want property line arguments with our not very nice neighbors. So, I'm going to have to put the tall trees on the near side of the garage. …

How does this impact your plans? Having trouble visualizing the layout. And which suggested trees are you considering?

I'm going to try to get a better picture. Can I even put and of these suggested trees within 15 feet of the garage's slab foundation? Do I need to worry about roots impacting it? The area is not near the house foundation, just the workshop (which is not on a slab) and the garage.