Recommendation for high mountain desert privacy trees

2 years ago

last modified: 2 years ago

About to move into a home near Nathrop, Colorado. USDA Hardiness zone 5a. House is at 7,900 feet. It is almost all pinon pines around the house. Looking at bringing in four or five 8-12ft fairly fast growing (18" a year) trees, as need them to get to 25ft or so. Looking at blue spruces, Little Leaf Lindens, Ponderosa pines, Norway Maple, and Honey Locust trees. I know some of these are more moderate growers, and some are more aestetically pleasing than others. Its on an 8 acre lot, so no neighbors nearby. Have automatic sprinkler capability to heavily water them the first couple of years. Wanting trees where they could get by with maybe a deep watering a month in the summer months longer term.

Rain precip is the following Jan 0.1″ Feb 0.3″ Mar 0.3″ Apr 0.7″ May 0.9″ Jun 0.6″ Jul 1.2″ Aug 1.2″ Sep 0.9″ Oct 0.5″ Nov 0.3″ Dec 0.1″, plus 2.3" of annual average snow across Mar and April, and 1.2" of snow across Sep and Oct.

Would love any success stories for this type of setting / need.

Featured Answer

mmmm12COzone5

2 years ago

last modified: 2 years ago

I have most of your considered trees. If you want a fast growing privacy screen that gets to 25' and is drought tolerant I suggest Moonglow Junipers. Mine are about 25' tall and 15-18' wide. Skyrocket Junipers also grow fast and get the same size. What we learned is the sizes published with the junipers are the 10 yr size. Keep them to 20 yrs or above and you have much larger bushes. Great privacy screens.

My other fast growing tree is Norway Spruce but they have been prone to get spider mites. There are two types the one shown below and a columnar version. You don't want the columnar version. Slow growing and very narrow.

https://www.fast-growing-trees.com/products/norwayspruce?variant=13940759920692&region_id=000006&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Google_FGT_PMAX_Feed+Only_Price+Tiers_31-50&utm_term=&utm_campaign_id=20531162306&utm_ad_group_id=&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwjqWzBhAqEiwAQmtgTzuSuftTgOq_q2XC1cHnHTH1PEO7i4tlTGOG3TudlQp-A1QcoeCZUhoCTLMQAvD_BwE

Blue Spruce are slow growers. But they are healthy and care free.

Love my Honey Locust for shade. But they aren't thick enough to be a privacy screen and I wouldn't say they grow particularly fast.

My Linden (which may be little leaf) is a lovely tree and grows very thick. Would not say it is a fast grower.

No experience with Norway Maples. My impression of Maple trees in general is that they split under snow load when they have leaves so aren't a good tree for the area.

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Comments (6)

SW Davis
Original Author
2 years ago
This very helpful. Researched several of these and they are interesting. What about Ponderosa Pines? I believe they are fast growers (but might get taller than I want/need, but as a workaround around I could put it down the hill a little bit to keep the top out at the right sight line from the house).
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mmmm12COzone5
2 years ago
We don't have any Ponderosa Pines.

We did buy three new shade trees today at Lowes. They are having a 25% off sale and they were a fantastic price.
llgarden
2 years ago
I have. ponderossa is slow rower. Same as Austrian. Compared to blue spruce - slower. Eastern red cedar - add to list. Most stable I found are 1-5 gallon pots, start small, better root system compared to bigger tree. it is faster this way. 1 gallon size will get to 5 gallon size pot in 2 years, it's cheaper when one does wind block 40+ trees this way. Best way to go CSU Ft Collins state nursery, if not - Bomgaars in spring has similar prices as CSU XL pots. Bomgaars actualy may have these trees now. I would go with junipers-cedars if he wants fastest growing wind block or privacy.
mmmm12COzone5
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
llgarden, Those are excellent recommendations. I will try a Eastern Red Cedar next time I buy a juniper.

We are going to try and increase our tree canopy so we bought mostly shade trees.

2 Greenspire Linden - Our giant mature Linden is deliciously dense and provides fabulous shade so we wanted more. 3.58 G for $54. They are 8 ft tall so a little tall for our comfort level of being sure they will survive.

2 Northern Acclaim Honey Locust - We have two giant Honey Locust and they provide great filtered shade, as well as small easy to deal with leaves in the fall. We are putting them where we like to have a view we can see through the trees. We wanted all smaller trees but the Northern Acclaim Honey Locust were only in the 7.28 G size. We've not had luck with such big trees (11 ft) before (they snap in the wind if staked) so wish we had heard your recommended shopping sites before we bought. They were $84 each and too big to take back so we are just going to give it a try.

1 Autumn Gold Maidenhair Ginkgo Tree - Have no experience with this one but it is cold hardy to -23 to -30 F so thought we would give it a try. 3.58 G was $63.75 so hard to pass up such a good price. This one is probably 4 ft tall so the most likely to survive. :-) They had several types of Ginkgo trees so if I knew they would do well here I would have bought more.

We also picked up a 1.5 ft tall Blue spruce for $12.98. Love how easy they are to care for (basically do nothing) and very healthy.
bengz6westmd
2 years ago
One plus on the eastern juniper (and junipers in general) is not minding alkaline soils. But there are also native western junipers if you can find those.