My wife and I just moved into a house in the Midwest, USDA Zone 6b, (first time home owners). There is a main road directly behind our house. The city does not permit us to put a fence along the edge of our property and I would like to avoid splitting the yard up. We have a baby and a dog so would just like some additional privacy and noise barrier. We can plant trees in the back, but wanted to know if anyone had others had any ideas or tree types they would recommend. So far I’ve seen Norwegian and Siberian Spruces as top choices. But would love some ideas!
by Mountain-Cycle-437
5 Comments
Forget the spruces. Planting massive canopy trees near those existing mature ones is a waste of time and money. Your current trees have already limbed up as they aged leaving a huge visual gap at eye level. New spruces will eventually do the exact same thing. You are entirely missing the mid level structure of your landscape. A functional design requires a canopy an understory and a groundcover working together. Right now you have a ceiling and a floor with a massive open window pointing straight at those cars. You also need to accept the reality that plants do absolutely nothing for road noise unless you plant a dense forest fifty feet deep. What a solid screen actually does is hide the movement of the cars which tricks your brain into ignoring the sound.
You need to plant a sweeping continuous mass of large evergreen shrubs to bridge the grass and the tree canopy. Create a deep curved planting bed connecting those existing tree trunks and fill the empty gaps with staggered rows of Green Giant Arborvitae or native Eastern Red Cedar. Plant them in a zig zag pattern instead of a straight line so they grow together into a thick solid wall. Throw some large dense native shrubs like Blackhaw Viburnum in front of the evergreens to add texture and break up the flat look. Bring the mulch bed out wide into the yard so you stop mowing over the roots of your existing trees. This builds the structural layer you are missing while giving you total visual privacy from the road.
If it were me (and depending on how large the backyard was) I’d do the trees as you’ve said, a row of tall junipers in front, followed by a row of deciduous bushes, and then finally a garden bed for smaller plants / flowers, etc.
I back up to a small road too and regret not having more depth in my plantings
Japonica radicans grows in a beautiful cone, 20-30’ tall. Lovely soft drooping needles too.
https://www.fast-growing-trees.com/products/cryptomeriaradicans
An eastern red cedar will survive just about anywhere. They aren’t as beautiful as some privacy trees, but they are tough. You won’t have a few of them dying when they’re 1/3 grown. You can buy cultivars that grow more conical to save yard space.
Since you can’t add a fence, is it possible to put in an earth berm? They’re supposed to help with noise reduction as well as blocking the view. Raised beds are another option. Hügelkultur is an interesting way to combine both. https://www.almanac.com/what-hugelkultur-ultimate-raised-bed