How to Plant a Windbreak

LESLIE: Now we’re going to go out west to Oregon with James.

How can we help?

JAMES: Hi. Yes, my wife and I are buying property; 35 acres out in Wyoming. And …

LESLIE: Oh, that sounds beautiful.

JAMES: Yeah, thank you. And we’re wondering if you might have any recommendations for a natural and fast-growing windbreak around the house to kind of prevent snow drifts and that type thing. And if you did have a recommendation, about how far apart would you space it?

LESLIE: What you want to do when you’re planting them – and we think the best kind of tree for it is an evergreen; something that will keep its greenery all year long. And when you’re planting them, as far as they go next to each other, if you plant them earlier closer together, you’re going to get more wind protection right at the beginning. But if you space them further apart, it makes the lower branches grow longer so that there’ll be less competition between the trees and it ends up being a taller windbreak. So you can either have satisfaction in the beginning that will sort of stay with you or let it sort of grow into its best potential.

And when you’re spacing them, it’s best to have several rows and sort of alternate them so that there’s always one in the diagonal behind it. And you should place your rows about 20 feet apart if you’re doing like a shrubbery or a hardwood. And if your space is a little bit more limited, you should plant shrub rows and conifer trees about 16 feet apart in rows. But if you’re doing a deciduous tree, which is a tree that would lose its leaves in the winter months, you shouldn’t space them any closer than 14 feet.

We have – you know, just sort of as a noise reduction because we border a high school – we have arborvitaes. And we started off with a 4- to 5-foot tree when we moved in two years ago and the trees are already at 9 or 10 feet tall. And we spaced them about 3 feet apart in the beginning just because it was covering a property line and now you cannot see between them. These things are thriving and they do their best in the winter and they grow all year long.

TOM: I hope that helps you out. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.