the driveway on the right is on the property line and goes to his workshop

how much land/space do you have on the side away from the driveway and pines ???

one thought.. the loss of the second line.. was because a monoculture was planted.. so if you plant something else.. diversify ... dont go with a new monoculture ...

one giant problem under or too close to the huge old pines.. will be actually digging a hole.. and also.. how little water will be available under the canopy ... it will be a desert ... so you will have to water for at least a few years.. to get new plants established ...

how big are you thinking about planting???

ken

by monoculture do you mean that in that they were all Pines? They were different varieties of Pines, the only survivors are the whites.

On the other side of the Pines I have about 30 feet to a short row of dogwoods and then about 55ft to the fenced in area. I would like to leave space between the dogwoods and the fence for a future site for barn/garage. I would like to block the neighbors shop, improve the "wind block". and make it obvious that the pines and that strip our on our property. People assume it belongs to the neighbor. We all have 3 acres and I don't know why they felt the need to put the drive on the property line

in the process of tearing out some old fence

Is it possible to get a picture of the whole property with the boundaries marked?

I don't know how I could get a pic of the whole yard, here is a pic from the deck, the boundary is the turquoise pole where the thicket is. The thicket is ours too and getting smaller and smaller. It has a lot of trash trees that have to go. It also used to be three rows of pines but the final deads were removed last year

monoculture in the sense.. that once something attacked one pine .. they all started falling ... i am rather surprised this row remained intact ... go figure ...

anyay... throw in a spruce or anything njot pine for the next row ...

and probably plan on the row left not to be there forever ... may as well be ahead of that curve.. even if it takes 10 years ...

ken

caveat ... but not blue spruce.. depending on where you are ... they have their own set of long term problems ... picea pungens ...

Thanks Ken, I will either go with he Norway Spruce or the eastern red cedar. I planted some Norway seedlings last year on the other side of the yard and they seem hardy so far, but I don't know how they will actually do in the long run. I have some left that I didn't get around to planting and just thru them in a pile of compost and they appear to be thriving, so if they make it thru the winter they will definitely get planted early Spring. The cedar( I know they aren't true cedars) are super hardy and grow wildly here, they just aren't that attractive, I love blue spruce but one rarely sees them full grown and beautiful, so if I do try a few they will be more like specimen trees on their own.

I don't know what the normal life span of a white pine is but I'm guessing these are about 35yrs old, so yea I need a back up for when the grim reaper comes for them.

Picea omorika × pungens 'Troemner' is a nice fast growing alternative to blue spruce. I visited Dawes in OH this summer and all their pungens seems heavily affected by needle cast but they have a beautiful and healthy × pungens 'Troemner' that appears unaffected.

This post prompted me to look for information on windbreaks in Kansas :-). Those pines don’t look like the eastern white pines common here so I assume they are the western type....? This page had interesting information on constructing/planting a windbreak in Kansas - since your row of trees was once part of one, it might be interesting for you to consider the information on that link, especially the recommended trees and their spacing/placement. I was surprised though to see golden currants listed as a desirable planting in the section on planting for wildlife.... While I can see using it for a source of food for wildlife, there should have been a warning not to use it (or any member of the Ribes family - i.e. any currants or gooseberries...) if you have white pines in the windbreak as Ribes is an alternate host for white pine blister rust, which can kill those white pines!

What will your fenced area be used for? I think I see wire mesh attached to the fence rails in your pictures....?

woodyoak I assume this is white pine I have. Pretty sure all of the Pines came from here originally , as will some of the new stuff I plant. I don't want a "real" windbreak. looks matter. If I can't have azalea and Rhodes, I'm thinking maybe hydrangeas on the left side, not the driveway side, or some large hosta under them, I want a row of evergreen between the whites and the drive.

https://mdc12.mdc.mo.gov/Applications/TreeSeedling/Home/ProductDetails/93?

The fenced area is for my dogs.

Thanks Ken I will search for these come early Spring ....Picea omorika × pungens

I know you don’t want a ‘real’ windbreak. I was suggesting though that the information in the linked document might be useful in helping you choose trees that would succeed in your environment and give a good idea of spacing them. I found it interesting that the list of trees included both eastern white pines and a western white pine - which is what I assume yours is since they don’t look much like the eastern white pines around here re how they are growing (plus the white pines around here tend to blow down in high winds as they get older!)

Do you have either deer deer or coyotes in your area? It looks like both of those could easily jump over that fence (how tall is it?) So would a lot of breeds of dogs... What kind of dogs do you have? Coyotes are a problem in our neighbourhood and we never let our dog out unless we are out watching him, even though we raised the height of the fence after a coyote jumped in a few years ago and attacked him (fortunately DH heard the commotion and chased the coyote off before and damage was done...)

yes we have coyotes and deer, the fence is 4', the old fence was also 4', have never had anything jump in or out in the past 17yrs, they don't go out alone at night but use a dog door during the day. I am home all day. Two hunt voles/moles constantly and one who

no he's not dead

has to catch his rays on sunny days.

Nice looking dogs... - Is there some poodle in them , especially the one in the second picture? Be careful - the coyote that attacked Cole went over a 4' fence like it wasn't there....! We raised to to 6' but they can go over that height pretty easy too. A friend's collie-mix would jump the 4' fence to play with a neighbour's dog. When we raised the fence to 6', she was confused by seeing both the 4' top rail and the 6' one and gave up jumping the fence after smacking into the 2' extension a few times! We hope any coyote would have the same experience :-) Plus there are a lot of properties with minimal to no fencing where the coyotes can just wander in., so those might be more attractive targets than ours. Hopefully all the open space visible in your pictures would be more attractive than the confined space behind the fence. But be careful and keep a close eye on your beasties!