Farm with busy road frontage - Privacy trees?

[blondejumper]

Our farm runs along a fairly busy two lane highway (frequented by semis). We have been debating planting privacy trees along the road to provide both privacy from the passing cars and cut down on some of the noise. Whenever I mention this to friends/family we get about a 50/50 response of either loving or hating the idea. We likely will sell within the next 10 years or so to hopefully upgrade, therefore I am curious on other horse owners opinion (as that would likely be the buyer to our home). If it matters we are about 45 minutes outside of fairly large city in the country and the barn has a separate driveway that would be used if they chose to board, give lessons, etc.

When looking at a home to purchase would you prefer a row of privacy trees (which block the house mostly from the road but provide privacy and less noise) or just a spruced up front yard that can be seen from the road (and maybe add one or two pretty flowering trees)? Thanks!

[clanter]

We likely will sell within the next 10 years or so to hopefully upgrade,

I would put the money into triple pane windows, sure does deaden sounds and will increase or should increase the value of the property

Trees would work as a sound barrier but be sure to check where the highway right of way is and utility easements if any. Might investigate Local/regional transit plans about highway expansion forecasts if any to make sure your sound barrier would be outside a proposed/expected highway expansion

[goodhors]

I would go with both bushes and trees in a double or triple, in alternating rows, if you have the room. Trees grow and fill the spaces between the row ahead. Bushes grow much faster in height and width, can be fully leafed the entire height. Various type pine and fir trees are popular up here in staggered rows as wind and sound barriers. They do take time to mature though. I have seen some amazing flowering hedges, Lilac, Rose of Sharon, Forsythia, that get pretty dense, tall, look beautiful in season. In front of pine type trees you would have a real attractive frontage that works well. Privet bushes are not a good choice, nor Honeysuckle because they are invasives.

I would not advise Blue Spruce plantings, they have a new problem that is killing off even mature trees. Chemicals are not always helping. My brother lost two huge Blue Spruce in his yard, even after being treated by a landscape company for 2 years. Not sure of your location to name specific trees or bushes that would work there.

Contact your local Land Conservation group fot suggestions of successful plantings. Ours is taking orders right now for bushes and trees to plant for wind protection, adding variety of trees to a local area. I have to get my order in! Might be under your County name, then land conservation. It is a State funded organization.

[mmeqcenter]

I’d prefer privacy trees/bushes. Also provides an extra safety barrier in case of vehicles that go off-road.

[2DogsFarm]

I chose to have a berm made from the fill my excavator had left after building the base for my pole barn & attached indoor.
I ended up with a 6’ high, 25’ long, 4’ wide barrier between my pasture & the 2-lane road in front.
Path on the road side left in grass to accommodate the setback, same on the drive side to the barn.
Traffic has increased on that road as nearby subdivisions went up.

I planted perennials - iris, daylilies, chrysanthemums & some etcetra - on the berm & over the years I gained a volunteer tree of some sort. This year it looks like a redtwig dogwood from the backyard has migrated there too.
Hindsight being 20/20, I should have put down weed barrier too :rolleyes:
As it is, I pull the weeds (thistle) I don’t want & let others (Queen Anne’s lace) remain.

Some day I will inlay a cement plaque on the roadside with my farm name engraved.

[Bluey]

What plants you use will depend on where you are.
Here many use pine cedar, not cedar elm, type trees.
Those smell good, are narrower type trees and easy to take care of.
A couple lines of them give excellent sound, dust and even smell protection.
If and when someone may not like them, they are easy to remove, not that large a root system.

Ask an arborist in your area to show you what others have and see which appeals to you most.

[gahorseygal]

No. We removed a ton of privacy trees the previous owner planted. Hated them. I did not want to take care of them, I have enough to take care of on this property as it is! Plus the previous owners did not take care of them. They were different sizes, different spacing, some I think spawned new ones. Some sort of evergreen.

[NaturalSelection]

I love trees for privacy and sound barrier. We plant privacy trees around the perimeter every year. Plantings at our last property increased the value, everyone who saw the house loved it.

[ParadoxFarm]

I vote yes for easy-care privacy trees and bushes.

[LetItBe]

We left about 20 feet worth of trees in the front of the property when we cleared it out and then put the fence on the side on the inside of the trees to keep animals away from the road as well. We like the face the house is hidden from the road.

LetItBe

[Scribbler]

Possibly depends on the culture of the area.

I live in Canada PNW and property design is historically heavily influenced by British traditions, especially high end residential. So people love their hedges and fences. When you drive in the poshes parts of town with the prewar genuine mansions all you see is immaculate 30 ft cedar or laurel hedge trimmed to perfection. And in the exurbs many.hobby farms have similar.

But in the USA I have seen upscale and middle class neighborhoods where there are no fences or hedges at least in the front, and all the front yards run together like one giant lawn. The beautiful Olmstead designed 1920s area of Homestead in Baltimore is like that. I used to walk there when I was a student in Baltimore and marvel at the fact you could see all the houses. I think there might have been a design covenant attached to the area. In Canada they would have all been behind huge hedges. I’ve never seen any neighborhood in Canada that didn’t have the lot lines marked out by fences except on Indian reserves.

So I am 100% a fan of hedges and privacy trees, but also agree that modern sound blocking windows are amazing. I first noticed this in 2nd floor dentist office on a very busy street and realized that must be how people can stand to live in all the new condos going up downtown. Silence

But if hedges are not popular in your area maybe that would affect resale?
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[HungarianHippo]

So I’ve been involved in several sound studies ( my industry can pose noise concerns). The fact is that trees and shrubs are not very effective at noise attenuation.

Deciduous trees will mask some noise when there’s a breeze (when they have leaves). But no tree really interrupts the passage of sound pressure waves- they are very efficient about ‘bending’ around an obstruction an continuing on their merry way.

Especially low frequency noise, which is the dominant feature of traffic noise. To effectively block noise, best to invest in measures to stiffen your house- cement board siding and sound proof windows. Insulate outlets, and you can add joists under your floors. These dampening solutions are your best bet.

No easy (or inexpensive) answers when it comes to noise.reduction.

[Scribbler]

I agree trees don’t do a lot about noise. But a nice hedge really does make a yard feel private and it might reduce some dust and dirt. I would also feel more comfortable having an opaque barrier between my horses and the outside world.

[S1969]

@Scribbler

Possibly depends on the culture of the area.

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This. It’s really impossible to imagine without seeing it.

What are the concerns that other people have? I’ve seen mentioned above that people don’t want to care for the trees. Or is it that people feel you should see the farm from the road? Or something else?

Is the privacy for the house, or for the animals/farm?

And how close is the house to the road?

I do agree that when a single house in an area has heavy tree cover in the front, it can look very odd. Especially if the house is fairly close to the road.

[downen]

Something to consider about privacy barriers of any sort is that it can increase your attractiveness to intruders because it gives them cover. Even with no privacy barriers and a well lit area around our barns, our outbuilding has been broken into twice in the last 20 years. Criminals suck.

[FatCatFarm]

I vote for trees plus windows, if you can afford it. But trees if not. Do something that doesn’t require a lot of upkeep like Leland Cypress^^^. Will also serve as a privacy screen.

The road we live on is somewhat busy. Though the speed limit is 45 people haul ass up and down the road and there are a lot of motorcycle owners in our area too and they love the country back roads like we live on. Fortunately, the house sits a fair distance off the road and the original owners left a screen of pine and mixed hardwoods between the drive and the street. It requires no maintenance and gives us privacy.

With reports of random shootings of horses in pastures along roadsides, I am very grateful for the screen of trees and not having pastures abutting the road. I realize a random hunter or some idiot target practicing in the neighborhood behind us, and missing, could still hit/harm one of the horses, or even us, but at least we don’t have the added attraction of a roadside target, because let’s face it, people suck at times.

[2DogsFarm]

I am the corner lot at my intersection.
When I bought (16yrs ago) there was a dense planting of fir & spruce bordering the corner near the house.
It helped to deaden the sound of passing traffic & shielded the house from strong South & West winds, along with giving me some privacy.

My benign neglect, along with the pi**poor job the County & utility do trimming have led to several of the evergreens dying.
So my former dense border is looking snaggletoothed.

If you had this sort of border by your frontage, and maintained it, I think it could give you the privacy you want & some noise reduction.

[NaturallyHappy]

I love trees. That said, they can make it harder to pull out onto a busy road. Another thought is that in case something is wrong, passerby’s can see it. We were starting a grill fire once and someone came in to make sure the house wasn’t on fire. The grill wasn’t particularly big, but it was on the porch which was about 4 feet high. Did she overreact? Yep… but what if it really was a fire and no one was here? It gave me perspective I’ve never had before.

[wildlifer]

I don’t like people to see my property,(I don’t like display & I don’t trust anyone) so I consider lack of trees to be a huge minus for any property, even without horses (unless of course you live somewhere where the native landscape doesn’t have trees, but even then I would want at least large shrubs or something).

[fordtraktor]

If I wanted to spend money on such a property, I’d put in a heavy duty perimeter fence with auto gate. My biggest worry at such a property is the horses getting in the road, and I think it would be a big concern for most potential purchasers.