Hemlock Privacy Screen

Here's a picture of our eastern property line. Along the line we placed 4 Canadian hemlocks about 8 feet apart to create a border hedge. The hemlocks will eventually fill together and create a nice soft evergreen screen for that side of the house. I would like to make this area into a woodland corridor connecting the front yard and the backyard with a shady path.

When planting the hemlocks I removed the grass in a 3ft area around the plant location. Then I dug the holes a little wider than the root ball and placed them into the holes making sure that the base of the plant remained slightly above the level of the soil. I then put newspaper down over the edges as a biodegradable landscape fabric and covered with a cypress mulch. I don't recommend amending the soil in the hole. That encourages the roots to stay in the hole where all the good dirt is and not spread out. It is better for the plant to adjust to the conditions in which it will grow from the beginning. Amending the ground all around the plants is a better plan to improve the soil. Sifted compost in spreader can do wonders!

Plant of the Week:Hemlock

Most people got it right! The correct answer was the hemlock. The Canadian Hemlock or Tsuga canadesis is a great plant to use as an evergreen screen or a specimen tree. It has the potential to grow between 40-70 feet tall and could spread up between 25-35 feet in diameter. Its foliage is soft and feathery unlike many other evergreen trees. Hemlocks produce cones with seeds that are eaten by a number of birds. A great tree for wildlife, the hemlock is facing a devastating predator: the woolly adelgid. This little insect is destroying many of these magnificent trees.

We planted four little hemlocks to eventually become a privacy screen along our property line.