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Need advice on building a privacy barrier w dwarf fur or spruce
I'd look at how fast a species grows in your area. You likely want privacy now and many trees are pretty slow growing in some areas. Some species limb up from the ground after they start maturing and then there goes the privacy. Some species are Christmas tree shaped and also wouldn't provide great privacy. If you ever want to take them out it might be good to avoid species that tend to form taproots. Poplar grow fast and provide decent dense bush for a few years till they get bigger but they loose their leafs in the winter and again there goes the privacy. Besides most deciduous species make for pretty ratty bush--especially during winter.
I know these are issues rather than suggestions. I'd probably think of something like a cedar hedge myself and that would still take a few years.
I don't know about mounding. Here in logging country reforested areas are mounded only if the soil is bad enough that only jack pine would grow very well. A nursery where the stock would be bought could advise on spacing for a particular species as well as species that hedge up well.
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Need advice on building a privacy barrier w dwarf fur or spruce
In building birms, I'd study the drainage of both yours and your neighbour's properties. You probably don't want to give either of you any unexpected ponds, skating rinks or erosion.
White pine was mentioned. I'm thinking that must be something different than eastern white pine, which get to be big trees around here although it takes them awhile. We're in an overlap between Boreal and Great-Lakes/St. Lawrence forests and most everything grows here but spruce and fir grow faster than pine. Small white spruce grow more than a foot per year.
Eastern whites are among my favourite trees and our privacy bush has both white and red pine and as well as birch, poplar maple etc. The pines are 50' - 60' tall and a few are larger. I like red pine for rows and think they'd do better planed close than white pine. We have a row that are probably 10-15 years old and are 10' tall. They've just started to limb up and would look good on a birm. We also have a blue spruce (not native here) a former owner planted from seed 50 years ago. It is about 30' and hasn't limbed up nor does balsam fir. The spruce is about 20' in diameter at the base and they couldn't be planted close.
I don't think you could limit the height of white pine or quite a few trees by pruning. Especially white pine turn into misshapen Gorgon trees if their leaders are cut. We have a white blister rust here that kills the leaders and the resulting trees aren't attractive at all.
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Need advice on building a privacy barrier w dwarf fur or spruce
Sounds like the plan is in hand but that's a good comment. I hadn't thought about sound reduction but it sure would help and definitely would be a reason to build a birm. Both the highway and railroad enter mild cuts along our property. At our camp they are twice as far but are above grade. Both are much louder at our camp--especially the railroad, which goes through 50 yards of dense bush before hitting open meadow. The bush doesn't do much about the train noise.
I don't know enough about tree root systems to know if some species fair better on birms than others. Ones that form taproots likely would be the most wind-firm. Another engineer and musician: Good to know and I'll try to keep my focus on tractor stuff.
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Need advice on building a privacy barrier w dwarf fur or spruce
I'll be following progress. Highway surveyors have been working away along our frontage. They may want to grab 7.5' of our property to solve their road bed drainage problems. If it comes to that it'll probably compromise our existing row of mature white and red pine so we'll be looking for a replacement privacy barrier and substantial compensation.
I guess the fence is along a property line and will stay. I'd think in terms of how much slope a birm could tolerate without erosion problems. To get much height a birm might have to be pretty wind and that would set the tree line further from the fence. A retaining wall on the fence side would solve any erosion problems but that sounds like a lot of work.
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Need advice on building a privacy barrier w dwarf fur or spruce
Pretty good-looking trees and the mound as well. I don't imagine they'll limb up as they mature like our pine so the privacy would remain.
We lucked out as well. We talked to our highway dept. A junior engineer stopped by on a Sunday when she was returning home from a personal trip and took a bunch of pictures. The engineers and consultants decided they didn't need the land after all. They'll even write a requirement to protect our tree roots into the construction contract.
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