Shrubs for wind break - Long post

jmk3482

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Ok everyone,

I live in an earth home, (not really by choice) and the side of my house faces the road and the septic tank in in the front yard. Like this:

________________
| |
| |Front door
| House |
|_______________|
Tree

Front Yard
with Septic

_________________________
_______Road______________

I have a tree near the house that gives nice shade but there is absolutly nothing but crappy looking grass in the front yard.

I would love to put some big shade trees in the front yard for a wind block and shade but that's not possible because I can't have something with an extensive root system on top of my septic tank. The front yard is on the west side of my house so that's where all the storms come from and I'm in Missouri which is zone 6. I'm thinking of putting some shrubs close to the house as a wind block since it's an earth home and the eaves of the roof are at most, 7 feet above the ground.

My question to all of you is, what shrubs would you reccommend? And how far away from the house should they be planted? I'd like shrubs that grow no taller than 10 feet and something that would have some color or blooms would be great. I'd really like to attract butterflies and humming birds to my yard.

And any other ideas to ad interest to a yard with a septic tank in the ground? Thanks.
 

ams3651

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I have the same problem at the side of my house, where my bedrooms are and the wind comes in off the field and my septic is located. I decided to put in tall traditional Lilac bushes, they are sturdy enough to stand up to the wind and grow very dense. I have to plant fairly close to the house and the other concern was roots against the foundation, this seems a good solution for me. I also plan to plant trees farther toward the field as a first kind of buffer. If you can plant to either side of your property that will help too.
 

patandchickens

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How much room is there between the road and the septic field, and between the septic system and the front of the house? Those numbers will play a big role in determining what you can do.

But a relatively generic answer would be something like this: you will get significantly more windbreak from evergreens than from deciduous shrubs, although of course you will also get more obstruction of view from windows, obstruction of solar heating in winter, and no purty flowers from 'em ;)

So, evergreens suitable for planting along the foundations would be things like mugo pine and white cedar (Thuja), both of which will eventually require some pruning to keep them from becoming too large but they take pruning well especially white cedar. Or a few of the junipers -- choose carefully, what you want is one of the shrubby (not treelike) ones that spreads vigorously and gets about 6-8' tall, I am blanking on the name of the cultivar but we have 'em in front of our house so I promise you they exist :p

If you want deciduous shrubs, some suitable candidates would be lilacs -- a very good suggestion made by the previous poster, plant 'em close together; or bridalwreath spirea, although it may not be quite large or stiff-boughed enough for what you'd prefer?; or some of the large ninebarks like the species or Diablo or Darts Gold; or possibly hazel (not witchhazel, not harry lauder's walkingstick, just plain ole hazelbush). Honeysuckle might be an option as well I suppose; forsythia would not be entirely worthless. Doubtless there are other reasonable candidates I'm not thinking of at the moment. If I had no conscience as to invasive species I would suggest multiflora rose, but I won't ;)

All of the above have reasonably dense branches and not excessively invasive roots. I would still not plant any of them closer than maybe 5' to the foundations, unless I had no choice and felt like taking a bit of a chance with the foundation drains and the solidity of my foundation. Unfortunately none of them are especially rapid growers, so if you want Actual Windbreak anytime soon you may have to buy large and plant pretty densely, which will involve some $$$. If you have any doubts about whether your foundation may have some cracks, I would stay away from honeysuckle and suckering varieties of lilac.

If you have room "near" your septic field/tank, you could consider trying some pines, which are generally regarded as safer than most other trees near septic systems because of their shallow noninvasive roots. I'd suggest Austrian pine if you don't have overplanting and disease problems with it in your area (although those things are awfully widespread these days) or Mugo pine (not the dwarf version) if you want something more shrubby and less tree-trunk-y looking, or perhaps scots pine if you want a more traditional 'hey its a pine tree' (although the scots pine only works really well as a windbreak if planted in several pretty-dense rows).

Hope this helps,

Pat
 
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