the easement is only for the drive???

any power lines in the easement???

ken

How about a picture? When you say "10 ft", do you mean 10 ft wide or long?

Is this all sun conditions or does some of it go into part shade near the wooded part?

You have to plant with in three feet of the driveway?

Bamboo.... some of it clumps. Some species spread. See the chart below.

Where you have more room, you might try "Little Gem" magnolia. And for variety, some of the tree form hollies.

All of the above will act as a screen.

But here and there, where ever you really have some room, you should plant some willow oaks or white oaks to develope some eventual shade. Plant them on the property line... doesn't sound like your neighbor is the type to notice.

Here is a link that might be useful: bambo chart

Maybe I can get a pic tonight. All of the first 300' of the driveway is in pretty much full sun. There is one big sweetgum on my neighbors property and that's it.

The asphalt is 10' wide on a 20' easement that does contain my buried power that is 24 to 36 inches deep. My water line is buried on the other side and is at least 36 inches deep.

So the 20 foot easement is from the edge of the street (sometimes it is from the center of the street) and extending 20 feet into the property?

You could just not plant anything for that initial 20 feet and work with the other 280 feet, right? Or you could take your chances and plant there. Many people do that around here (but don't do anything expensive).

Ok, got a couple of pics this morning. As you can tell it was raining. Hopefully this will better explain my easement and driveway. The first pic is facing up my driveway to the county road. Notice the 20 ft wide easement and the 10' wide driveway located inside this easement.

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The picture below was taken from the county road looking down the driveway toward my house (that you cannot see). You can see where the woods begin.

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My wife and I were discussing all this last night and she overruled my mixed planting idea. She wants to plant only one species, most likely a conifer. She would probably be ok with some type of broad leaf evergreen if it looked nice. Moreover, she wants only to plant the left side of the driveway now (looking from the street, the second pic) where all of my neighbor's "stuff' is.

There are several small water oaks over next to my house that I can transplant on that little hill on the side where the four volunteers are currently.

Oh, so the easement is BESIDE the driveway! Wow, I haven't seen that arrangement.

Yes, Eastern red cedar (technically a native tree form of Juniper) would be good.

Doesn't look like your neighbor is giving you much room to plant anything. Does he/she use that driveway too?

Swamp Chestnut Oak (Quercus michauxii)

Down south don't Crepe Myrtles grow very well? They should stay manageable size and have dozens of different cultivars.....

Many of the Japanese Maples do that 15 x 15 size well also here and tolerate or even benefit from some shade. Dogwoods down there?

You MIGHT be able to get away with a pyramidal tree like a bald cypress or dawn redwood if you're looking for vertical stretch. Both get good size trunks though so that probably eliminates them.

Check out your state forest service website. Usually they sell them pretty cheap but small size. Easy to maintain when you have that many to grow. All you have to do is find free wood chips and run a soaker hose to get them established.

Eastern red cedar is bulletproof tree. Dense screening. Can't go wrong with it. Probably too slow growing. What about Giant Green? Fast growing evergreen trees....

SCO is a reasonably fast grower. And a very handsome, if underused, tree.

>>>>she overruled my mixed planting idea. She wants to plant only one species, most likely a conifer. She does understand that any planting of one species will have dramatically different growth rates for the individual plants? Even planted the same day, give it a few years, and some of the trees will be TWICE the size of others.

If she's expecting them to grow uniformly up and down the lane, she's in for a big disappointment.

The mixed planting is a much better idea.

Tell her also that a mixed planting will protect you from a single pest or disease playing havoc with your plants. So many people, for example, have planted solider rows of leyland cypress and then have them all disfigured by canker, right on down the line. Plant all cherries and have tent caterpillars move in, etc.

Or perhaps two years from now, two plants die, you replace them, but they're smaller or differently shaped.

Thanks everyone!! I certainly appreciate it. Yep, I've explained all that to her and I think she has her mind made up. I think I'm going to call our county extension office and talk to them about it as well.

What's an SCO??

As far as slow growing. I think that would be ok. 8 - 10 feet tall would make a world of difference. I do realize that I will be trimming the sides of the trees too.

probably Swamp Chestnut Oak (Quercus michauxii)

I kinda want to get some of those too.

Another point to consider, if this is a true "easement", then your neighbor still owns the property your drive is on, and therefore you would not have a "right" to plant anything at all without their permission. This "easement" almost certainly an access easement that allows for a road/drive and utilities, but gives you no other rights whatsoever.

I don't know if this is a true easement, or if you in fact own a strip of land to the road, but you need to keep this in mind. You can find out from your "plat" that either you will have a copy of, or you can find at the county courthouse. IMHO I would say don't risk ticking off the good neighbor, and live with it especially if you don't actually "own" the stripe.

JMHO
Artrees