Evergreens??

[walleyes12]

I want to plant some evergreens for a wind break for the winter. A good north wind blows all the snow directly into my driveway. I guess my question is, whats the best type of evergreen to plant? Also, how far apart should I plant them? Any suggestions or comments

[Quetico]

Go with spruce. White spruce do well, or Serbian. Also Ponderosa Pines.

Avoid Colorado Blue Spruce. They are a mountain top tree that does not handle the humidity well. Also they don't age as gracefully as other spruce.

[zelek]

I researched this a bit a few years ago when we built our house. I had some really good info on living snow fences....I can't remember where I got it from though. Hmm...anyway, I remember reading how important it was to have the tree row at least 125 ft from the driveway so as the snow drops out after blowing across the trees it doesn't pile up right where you don't want it.

I planted a double row of Red Dosier Dogwoods (4 ft between the rows and 4 ft within the row) which grow up into one real dense tree row. It works very, very well. I love the blood red color of the branches against the snow in the winter time as well.

I have Black Hills Spruce in the ground too...we were advised 15 ft within the row and 16 ft between the rows. They say you run the risk of disease setting in if you plant them closer together within the row. Some do though, and then just take every other one out and transplant it after they get a little bigger. That works too. Planted as very small trees five years ago, some are now over six feet tall. They look great, but the dogwoods are my primary snowfence for now.

Hey..I just noticed you're from Hawley!!. Feel free to stop over and take a look some time if you want.

[JayinMN]

I would go with Norway spruce, they are the fastest growing of the spruces. One thing nice about any of the spruces, deer are not particularly fond of them.

[paul pachowicz]

cedars are hard to beat for windbreaks

[solbes]

I like either white spruce or black hills spruce. Red and White pines are good when young, but will eventually lose their branches near the ground when aging. Norway pine and cedars would also provide great wind breaks, but I prefer the other two spruces. Another suggestion is to plant a variety. Gives it a woodsy feel when they are different.

The deer left my spruces alone this year, but destroyed about half of my pines (even with paper bud caps on them!). Guess I'll be spraying some deer deterrent this fall on those remaining.