any idea's

MRBB

5 year old buck +
OK, I have a property, that is surrounded by pine tree's, and there all mature pines, mostly all hemlocks,(40-60 ft tall) over the yrs all the branches from ground up to about 5-6 ft died off and were cut off
behind the pine tree's is private property, on my side of things I have a nice food plot!

old owner never was about property, so never cared, about peeping eye's, or folks seeing into food plot, as there is a road also on other sie of tree's on the private side!
recently old passed away, new owners now are always wandering behind and watching everything in food plots, Most of the critters that show upcome in from the private side.

tree's on property line run from east to west, so sun is always on private side more than my side,

I am trying to find something I can maybe plant under the tree's to grow and work more as a shield to block peeping eye's
anyone know of anything that will grow well under pine tree's
I know they will need to be pretty shade hardy and no clue as now, what PH /soil is like, had about 6 inches of pine needle, which I clear away recently

don't want to cut the pines down either>
so anyone suggestions on what to try planting?
 
I'm not aware of any native evergreen plant more shade tolerant than hemlock. It can survive with 5% sunlight. Below is a picture of a small one that has been growing about 3 years under the shade of a large oak tree. Bush Honeysuckle will grow in deep shade and make a heavy screen, but don't let anyone talk you into planting it.

Hemlocks will eventually get big, so that might not suit you. Talk to some local nursery people about some of the tall boxwoods or Japanese Yews. They don't get real tall and take quite a bit of shade. Privet will too, but it is about as invasive as Bush Honeysuckle.

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thanks for the suggestions
I have tried planting small hemlocks under the larger one's, but so far have had zero luck(tried for about 3 yrs now)
as I have a lots of smaller one's growing else where on property, so there free, I dig em up, and trans plant them, have tried them in sizes from about 6 inches tall to about 4-5 ft tall, and none seem to make it all go from green to dead in about a yr on me!
I also questioned that maybe something is off on the soil as with all the needles and seeds like that fall off the larger tree's there should be some smaller one's growing there, but there isn;t? in this 100 yard long section I have
this past all I cleaned up all the old needles , was about a 6+ inch worth of them before I got down to dirt under the pines
This winter I spread some lime on top of soil too, just figured it couldn;t hurt anything and had a lot of left over from a spring project!

as for planting an invasive species like Bush Honeysuckle, honestly if I could get a bunch of it, I would plant it
the whole area behind my place has been hit super hard by over population of deer and the forest here is depleted a lot of any cover or browse that isn;t 6-8 ft off the ground
plus it might help keep trespassers off my side of things, all the more so if it spread well into there side of things to add a spacer between us more LOL

I'll have to check on the others ( tall boxwoods or Japanese Yews )

maybe they can be a option?
 
Eastern Hemlock prefers acid soils from 4.2 to 5.7. Many other evergreen also prefer acidic soils. Lime might be a bad idea.
 
well tree's growing there are 20-30 yrs old or so, some much older
mostly eastern hemlocks
I didn;t add a lot of lime, just what I had left over, I doubt I would have hurt things, BUT maybe something will grow under them as , of now, and past 20 yrs or so, NOTHING grows under them, not a blade of grass or a weed!

between having way too many needles down and maybe really low ph from all the needles, I was hoping the lime might spurt something up this spring?
all the more so if I try planting something again under them, branches on tree's shade things out past property line about 15+ ft or so and same on my side, so its a big opening to try and fill with anything, due to low sun and unknown soil?
 
Plant a strip of sorghum, egyptian wheat, sudax on that side of the food plot?
Create an earth berm?
Some green snow fencing?
 
Plant a strip of sorghum, egyptian wheat, sudax on that side of the food plot?
Create an earth berm?
Some green snow fencing?
thanks for your suggestions,
I used to have snow fence up, but bears and deer knocked it down on me
don't want to add a berm of dirt, as folks will sit on the back side of it on me I fear

and trying to get something as close to the property line as possible, if I planted something on plots edge on my side, it would be 20-25+ ft from property line, as my side of things get very heavy shade from about 20-25 ft in, tried planting things that grow taller, like corn or sorghum,(and when it did grow some, it just added more shade farther out into plot then , not helping me really!
so, I had no real luck trying it that way , and don't want to have to plant something every yr too if I can help it
if I can get something to grow closer to the property line under the tree's to fill in from the ground up to about 6-8 ft, is my goal, and something that will stay thicker on its own yr to yr, be ideal , just not really sure what this might be LOL
please keep the idea's coming much appreciate all and any!
 
Check out Bill's(forum administrator) Miscanthus thread

bill
 
Eastern hemlock is allelopathic to its own offspring/regeneration. Essentially, mature trees produce chemicals that prevent young ones from growing under them. That same allelopathy may affect other things you're trying to plant as well.
 
I've got some black raspberries growing against the north side of one of my sheds, so only gets direct sun in the middle of summer. They spread on their own so will make a nice thicket if left unchecked. Deer will browse new spring growth, and will hit it in late winter if they need to, but it grows fast enough to outpace them.

I've seen patches of it growing in the pines where I hunt so they should handle your soil. I had to bloodtrail a doe through a patch last fall, which was not fun with those thorns.

Do some research to confirm it will work in your situation though as I'd hate to lead you astray.
 
[QUthanks, I gave it a quick once over and looked up Miscanthus, from what I see, its mostly a more sun required plant, but I do think I will try some and see, and place in spots that seem to get the most sun!

going to order some today , so thanks
 
I've got some black raspberries growing against the north side of one of my sheds, so only gets direct sun in the middle of summer. They spread on their own so will make a nice thicket if left unchecked. Deer will browse new spring growth, and will hit it in late winter if they need to, but it grows fast enough to outpace them.

I've seen patches of it growing in the pines where I hunt so they should handle your soil. I had to bloodtrail a doe through a patch last fall, which was not fun with those thorns.

Do some research to confirm it will work in your situation though as I'd hate to lead you astray.
thanks for the suggestion
I used to have a bunch of raspberries and black berries here, but they seemed to have been over browsed (have a ton of deer and other critters here daily yr round)
and shaded too much and after a few yrs, dies off all together
I did also look at red and yellow one's and they claimed to be more harty, but had no luck with them, I think all the critters here are just hard on things.
BUT I might try planting some again and fence them off and se if they might take and grow better or last a few yrs again!
 
Eastern hemlock is allelopathic to its own offspring/regeneration. Essentially, mature trees produce chemicals that prevent young ones from growing under them. That same allelopathy may affect other things you're trying to plant as well.
thanks for the info
I have always wondered why no seedlings ever grew under these tree/s
so this sort of explains things
however, the odd thing is, 100+ yards away I have more hemlocks and, same types, and they produce new one's growing under and about the area all the time
I have even again, tried transplanting them to where I want them
and then I have also brought in some from other property 25 miles away
and they always end up dying a yr or two after I plant them
maybe these more older tree's are killing things I plant near them??

NOW maybe I should state this too, in this row of hemlocks, I do have a few older tree's that grew up with them at about same age, a few white birch tree's and a American Chestnut, (40+ yr old tree)
but other wise, all others that were in there all died the past 10 yrs or so?(mostly oak tree's)


so again, maybe the hemlocks giving off something that is killing and preventing new things from growing
and who know';s maybe it was that thick layer of pine needles that was over doing things, or hoping this, as I will try again planting more things this spring and hope they make it!
 
Do the new owners hunt? If not would it be a good idea to talk with them and see if they would keep their distance if you opened it up some and they could see into the plot from further away? Do they have a house back there that they could view the plot from the living room? Could benefit the both of you... give them a view and they keep their distance.

Second option I would look at is round bales. Lots of ranchers get old hay over the yrs and will sell it cheap. Instant and long term screening that the bears won't destroy.
 
Maybe I read things wrong and sorry if I did.

But I'd select cut the 30ft pines and drop them in a staggared fashion to create a screen. But not so dense that animals can easily pass, just make it hard to pear in from a passing vehicle.

Then interplant as necessary and get new growth going.
 
If there is a road and nosy neighbors maybe it’s just not a good spot for a plot.
 
Ok to answer a few of the above things

yes there is a house to the west of my about 400 yards away, from this house, the same owner owns the land behind me and to the east of me, the road behind my place and other side of pine tree's is a OLD coal mining road, that was for the past 30 yrs or so ONLY used my me and a few others on rare occasions, I been maintaining the road, as I have access to lands behind me(several thousand acres of forested land)
the new owners have friends and family members now that use the road to go for walks and ride atv;s, so its getting a lot of use, and there always watching things in the plot and its sort of close to MY house
they will now walk over to stop and stare at things, where as old owner never did, just stayed indoors more or less!

I do NOT want to cut down the pine tree's as this is also at a bottom of a hill and the tree's work as a wind break for the upper part of things, so thats not a option, and once the needles come off a dead pine tree there not much for any screening!

the new owners don't really hunt, but there family MIGHT, there not trophy oriented people, they just want some deer meat >
and I am not honestly worried about them shooting any special deer, I also DON"T hunt here, but I do enjoy having the wildlife here all the time, and trying to keep that going
as of last few decades I have wildlife in yard more or less all day long, as its rather private and they don;t, (DIDN:T) have any real disturbance minus ME< and they grew to know I mean them no harm, so they be about in day time all the time
I have been blessed to been able to watch many animals live for 10-15 yrs here and get to see them age and mature and have generations of off spring.
so I am trying to keep this going if I can, by limiting people stopping or coming to WATCH things, as there doing now
a privacy fence WON"T work, as it would limit too much access to things , due to way land lays out!
so, again hoping to just create a growing shield of sorts
I really don't care if it expands farther on or off my land, (on my sideI can treat or mow as needed if it happens)and I know neighbors don't care either, I already talked about it with them, stating I will be planting some things on the border and in time it might spread, and they said go ahead have at it, we don't care!
so that was good to know!

these new neighbors are former city folks, so the chance to see wild life in my plots is drawing them daily now, as a fact , right now, several times a day
which has gotten my attention, getting ton's of trail cam pic;'s of them too taking pictures and such of things on MY side!
I think in time there interest will taper off, but as of now, there having friends and family show up to watch things

one of them things you didn;t know how good you had it till it changes here right now and trying to find options to help ?
I don;t think there is any FAST fix, but doesn't mean I cannot try and ask about to see what might be best to plant!

even if I KILL the food plot on this border, the upper one's
well , I have NO plans kill them , so I still draw critters from there side, no matter what here, I also have a few dozen fruit tree's and other things that draw wildlife here yr round
and they always access things from that location, so, its a tricky deal here LOL
 
OH and sorry I forgot, about the bales, I have considered them, I am close friends with many farmers and can get some and have machinery to move and set them up

my one worry on them is, all the shade and being at the bottom of a hill, water and them getting moldy
not enough room on property line to be in front of pine tree's between my side and there's
and tree's too close together to place larger bales, so would end up stacking them on my side more, not a end all deal, just trying to not waste space if I can help it between plot and property line
 
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