Road privacy shrubs & cutting white pines?

JeepHead · Aug 14, 2025

Fuddyduddy1952 said:
From our house to secondary road is about 500ft. There's a ditch along paved road and my land up about 3'-4' above road. 40+ years ago I ordered a few hundred white pine saplings, spaced 10ft apart with dibble bar along road, up drive, etc. for privacy. They were perfect at about 6ft-10ft but now you see about 1-2ft diameter, highway department limbed them, some died, others cut back for our HV power line overhead to transformer.
A couple months ago I had one cut because of pine bark beetles. Now I see another one dying...you can hear bugs chewing.
I know a very good tree service that has great equipment & last tree they cut & hauled off $400. Rather than (my guess) having them come out every few months I'm considering just cutting them all. The good thing was the pine needles choked out weeds so I don't have to weed eat along road. Ditch & bank are steep.
At this point there isn't much privacy at all and so many missing not pretty plus low limbs hard to mow around, etc.
>I'm sorry for such a long post, bear with me<
Here's what I'm thinking: I'm 73 so time isn't on my side. I can cut trees myself but close to road is dangerous (falling on a car! ).
The tree service could cut them all, grind all stumps and have a huge chipper so I'd have a huge pile of chips. (Finally my question!):
We're in Virginia zone 7. Clay soil fairly acidic (guessing 5.5ph). I'm thinking about a hedge row for privacy, but must be fast growing. My idea would be planting then spread that pine chip mountain so it would probably be 1ft-2ft deep, 12ft wide so no weeds (?).
Hedges for acidic clay soil.
I'm reading: "Carolina Sapphire (Arizona) Cypress, Cryptomeria Radicans, Thuja Green Giant, Lombardy Poplar, Nellie Stevens Holly, and Leyland Cypress are fast growing trees that grow well anywhere within Zone 7. Italian Cypress and Wax Myrtle."
I don't like privet at all & pull it up, it grows wild here. We have forsythia bushes but again not fast growing & deer eat young ones I plant.
Around here most everyone plants cypress but they must not have a good root system because we see them blown over sometimes.
Any ideas? I'm thinking a hedgerow would give the most privacy and some grow 2ft+ a year.
I have tractor & lots of attachments.
Thanks in advance.View attachment 3873401 View attachment 3873402 View attachment 3873403

I planted 150 of these around the perimeter of my property last year. All of them are small at around 18-24". They sure are pretty!

Fuddyduddy1952 · Aug 14, 2025

I just returned from my homeplace, 15 miles away. There are I bet 10 acres of these evergreens that are growing like crazy, from little seedlings to 20 footers. I looked it up and I believe they're Longleaf Pine.
This is one I just pulled up by the roots & put in a pot here & water.
If that's what they are there are 100's, probably 1000's...they're really fast growing, free, and not a single one I see with any dead limbs or insect problems. That may be my answer!
I was saying to wife I could easily plant a staggered double row.
Strange how they're just growing everywhere.

JeepHead · Aug 15, 2025

Fuddyduddy1952 said:
I just returned from my homeplace, 15 miles away. There are I bet 10 acres of these evergreens that are growing like crazy, from little seedlings to 20 footers. I looked it up and I believe they're Longleaf Pine.
This is one I just pulled up by the roots & put in a pot here & water.
If that's what they are there are 100's, probably 1000's...they're really fast growing, free, and not a single one I see with any dead limbs or insect problems. That may be my answer!
I was saying to wife I could easily plant a staggered double row.
Strange how they're just growing everywhere. View attachment 3921246 View attachment 3921247

Man I wish I had a bunch of these growing on my property that I could relocate to where I wanted them.

When we first bought our property two years ago, I purchased several 8'-10' tall leyland cypress trees and lined them up my long driveway and along the road in front of our house. They are now probably closer to 14' tall and should really start growing come next year. I value my privacy and like a yard full of trees. Since then I have planted the 150 white pines, another 50 cedar saplings, Peach, apple, pear, chestnuts, and some ornamental trees. I already have 3 very large persimmon trees in the front yard. And I also have tons of fruiting paw paw trees scattered around. Next up are some cherry trees.

Fuddyduddy1952 · Aug 15, 2025

I just spoke with the Virginia county forestry agent and said he would have loggers cut them as some suggested here instead of paying it's making a little money. He believes the pines at the homeplace are Virginia Pine.
He's going there to be sure.
I could take my backhoe or there's a tractor dealership right there. They most likely would let me use or rent a small excavator. I'd be nice if I could get a lot of 6ft ones. I have plenty of space to plant extras in case some die. This time I'd plant two staggered rows for privacy.

Torvy · Aug 15, 2025

Nice! I have a forest of loblolly, which is a longleaf pine that grows fast. True Longleaf pines grow more slowly, so are less common. Texas has a program to restore Longleaf, but not in my county.

We planted over 125 Virginia Pine we got from the Christmas Tree Growers Assoc. I'm considering getting more to plant this winter. One the big trees are thinned the place will need more screens.