Tall fast growing trees for privacy but safe near houses - suggestions please?

lostinrates

Tinks32 wrote: »

Yes they are also great for shaping too! I have one growing in my rockery! (yes obviously it is no longer a rockery because my tree addiction took over)! I have grown it as a standard and 2 weeks ago trimmed it into a mushroom shape, it looks wonderful. when I get some more posts behind me I will add some photos.

Ooh, i would be thrilled to see pics, yes please!

I was thinking also of buying an arbutus X arachnoides for a different location, i had never seen either of these in the flesh though. I love the strawberry tree, but its just straight up and down atm, like a seven foot whip. (it had some very low side shoots which i removed because they would always have been in the wrong place, but i have done this with trepedation and am hoping it was not a mistake! ). Ours is to go on a boundary to sheild a view, so i want a little more height And to encourage higher side shoots. There is a hedge to five feet or so immeadiately behind for lower privacy.

Tinks32

What word?
I have a huge garden where i can get away with planting nearly what I want, and my neighbour is extremely glad i have done it, she now does not have to look and my husband and I sunbathing in our birthday suits:)
You remind me of someone on another forum!

Tinks32

lostinrates wrote: »

Ooh, i would be thrilled to see pics, yes please!

I was thinking also of buying an arbutus X arachnoides for a different location, i had never seen either of these in the flesh though. I love the strawberry tree, but its just straight up and down atm, like a seven foot whip. (it had some very low side shoots which i removed because they would always have been in the wrong place, but i have done this with trepedation and am hoping it was not a mistake! ). Ours is to go on a boundary to sheild a view, so i want a little more height And to encourage higher side shoots. There is a hedge to five feet or so immeadiately behind for lower privacy.

Time will tell:) I recently got very fed up with a bay tree that was in a pot, so I cut it right down. It did not do anything all summer then suddenly 2 weeks ago it shot up new shoots. They are now 2 foot long!!

Leif

Just to add a note concerning pipes. I am not convinced plastic pipes are safe from roots. Last weekend my neighbour excavated a pipe under a boundary fence, which took waste water from his garage guttering to a soakaway. It was full of earth. We found that the root of one of my holly bushes had grown into the pipe and cracked it. Okay it was an earthenware pipe, but the root entered via the joint, and I don't see why similar could not happen with plastic, especially if there was a tiny leak. Fortunately he is sensible, and rather than confrontation, we sorted this out together: he repaired the pipe, and I removed the holly, as it was too much of a thug. Also when digging I found thick 1" roots 4m away from the nearest hedge, and 1 foot under. They were either Forsythia or a conifer, there being both in the hedge. I've also found 1" roots from a rose bush, that were several meters long, and at least 1 foot under.

Cyclonebri1: do you have any comments on this?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4180857

Sorry to divert the thread entirely.

Tinks32

Also I forgot the Stags Horn tree:)

Davesnave

Leif wrote: »

Just to add a note concerning pipes. I am not convinced plastic pipes are safe from roots. .

I think one can get too wound up about pipes. Let's face it, there are probably millions of miles of the things in this country, and in many cases people haven't a clue where they go. Thus, many pipes have trees planted near them and life still goes on. There are plenty of 'pipe-ridden' places with street trees too.

Of course the risk is greater if the pipes are old clay jobbies. If they are something like perforated drainage pipe, then it's definitely a no-no.

We had sewer pipes coming into our old garden from three directions and meeting there at a depth of around 2 metres, but nobody from the water board asked us not to plant trees. Some of the very large trees there pre-dated the sewers anyway!

In my present garden, the previous owners planted about 50 trees of low pedigree in a line flanking the outlet of the septic tank which runs 30 metres or so as a solid pipe before entering the drainage field. I thought that was a bit daft, especially as any of them could have fallen over, so I felled the lot, but it would have been too barren without anything, so I've planted a yew hedge in their place. My attitiude is that the yews are worth the risk, and if we did have a problem in the more distant future, a day with a mini digger would sort it out.

Life's too short to do without trees!

Leif

Davesnave wrote: »

I think one can get too wound up about pipes. Let's face it, there are probably millions of miles of the things in this country, and in many cases people haven't a clue where they go. Thus, many pipes have trees planted near them and life still goes on. There are plenty of 'pipe-ridden' places with street trees too.

Apparently it is quite common for trees to penetrate pipes. It's all about common sense isn't it, combined with a little knowledge. A lot of pipes are quite deep, 1m or more down, and not many shrubs go that deep, most go about a foot down. I suspect that is true of many trees too. The holly bushes/trees I uprooted last week had quite large stumps and each was too heavy for me to lift. But they did not go down more than a foot. Perhaps some trees have tap roots. Don't conifers have deeper roots, but with little spread? So I guess a pipe that is one meter down is fairly safe from many trees, but you don't want to plant a tree on top, or too close just in case.

cyclonebri1

Leif wrote: »

Cyclonebri1: do you have any comments on this?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4180857

Sorry to divert the thread entirely.

Thread answered, and should be in the other topic.

Yorkie1

m33r4 wrote: »

I am planning on planting 2 tall trees so I can reclaim privacy in my back garden from the neighbouring house's dormer window which directly overlooks my back garden.

The nearest house is approximately 20-30 feet away from the area I wish to grow the trees in. I have been contemplating a poplar as they are fast growing, upright trees that don't spread out much. The idea is to get height with enough leafiness to get privacy spring to autumn when we use the garden.

I am also thinking of possible root spread. My neighbour who works for the council assures me that I can plant anything I like in my garden. I live on a new housing estate and the drainage/sewer system is plastic so she said that the chance of root damage to sewers is negligible. She also said the council don't get involved in tree complaint and if the neighbour's property was affected they would have to take out a civil case but it was hard to prove any problems was tree-root related.

Any tips/advice please?

Advice re. poplars seems to be that 35 metres is a safe distance from a house...
http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/trees.html
http://www.ttfh.org.uk/treedata.htm

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Just as an aside, as a person with neighbours myself, I have to say that I would look upon apple, plum and cherry or Japanese maple trees more benignly than some godawful coniferous weed.