Not real fast. About as fast as a Yew.

if you were to provide any information about the project.. you might get more suggestions... like: soil sun available height width size of yard ... snow load issues... etc... etc ... a 300 foot tall redwood [though zone NOt for your zone] .. will fit the facts you provide .... as will a 4 foot arb... depending on the circ's of your yard ... but do understand.. that things conifers/trees never really stop growing ... and many get really.. really big ... so something that grows really fast to the height you need.. will grow right past that size and might get way too big.. way to fast in a small yard .... also.. there is a tendency for fast growing stuff to become very problematic in a fast time ... if you have a yard that is postage stamp sized .. you might not want something as aggressive as one who has 5 acres might .... now there is an A+ sentence.. lol .. ken

dear all thanks so much for the suggestions. I guess I should have clarified a couple of things. 1. North is up 2. Juglans, silver maple, scotch pine were planted long before I got the house. They are quite massive specimens and I won't get rid of them. The juglans is a pain in the neck but is a gorgeous tree, in summer and winter (less so in spring and fall). 3. Distances. I don't share a passion for savannah-like landscapes. I understand where you come from, but my perspective is a 10-20 year perspective of somebody who likes woods and meadows much more than savannahs. The punges are 5 meters apart. Plenty of space in my view. 4. The property is an acreage, no neighbours but I have a noisy road to the west which is going tpo be screened by windbreak and a beech grove (the street is 60 meters west of the diagram I attached). On the other hand, the only view I'd like to keep open is the one to the east. In the other directions I'll want to be walled in. 5. There is so significant slope. It is Iowa, after all :-) 6. I don't care about the lawn - this specific area will have lawn, but most of the rest of the property will be reverted to prairie or whatever it is that it becomes when the beech grove has formed a canopy. 7. Beside Juglans, acer and scotch pine, all other trees will be planted in the next 1-3 years. So, you can expect that they will be starting from the same size. (I am aware of the risks of doing everything from the beginning but I have made my decision on that) 8. I have a quite extensive dripline system that will take care of all plantings. I have plenty of dying poplars on the north and south side which will provide mulch (I already have more mulch than I can use) 9. This area should be a beautiful area with some landscape interest (this is why you see the variety of colors and the opening between the KCT and the fagus creating a minimeadow framed by cornus controversa and acer esk sunset). This is the area where we will spend most of the time in the summer. 10. Right now I am at an airport, I have no access to the pictures of my property. I will send them on Monday. I will also send a higher resolution picture of the whole property (Ken - that will be a lot for you to have fun with) 11. I plan to plant all plants as seedlings or from seed, due to cost issues. I already have planted a variety of caryas (pignut, mockernut, laciniosa, ovata) from seed on the north edge of the property (outside the view of the diagram). They haven't come up yet (planted last fall). My main challenges are 1. visualization of how it is going to look especially since many of these plants I have never seen in person. I have made extensive research on each of them over the past 18 months but still nothing substitutes the impression that a live tree can make. 2. Account for shading. I have very little intuition about what amount of shade certain trees will look full under. For example, I am not a fan of sparse conifers (with the exception of picea orientalis and hemlocks), especially the kind of look that firs get when they are shaded. 3. Account for hardiness, storm resistance, ice resistance. I read a lot about that but I still don't know how much damage to expect from serious storms. So far we have gotten up to 80mph and the damage was minimal, with the exception of the willows and poplars I inherited. I am overwhelmed with the response to this post. I just love trees. My hope is that my garden could have some of the characteristics of that of botann, which is in fact my favourite, I love its density, texture, lushness, natural feel. But then again, I have seen such amazing gardens on this forum that I am still trying to cope. Only two months ago, I almost had no conifers in my plan (I actually hated conifers with a passion, with the exception of cedars) and then I saw the pictures of Dave's Dan's Ken's gardens and the amazing garden in Toledo... and that changed my mind! That is all for now. Have to hop to portland. Thanks so much. You all are such an inspiration!

Yes, yes, to the above statement. While I'm no advocate of the logging out of the few true remaining old-growth stands-a concept fraught with much confusion-these and most any other forest stand which has been logged-and no, I'm not at all opposed to all logging-are chock-full of the seeds, seedlings, and root sprouts of the new forest. In the tropics, dumb people are calling all land which has been logged off a total loss. Yes, we need to retain the enormous trees of these stands, but to say all is lost when they've been logged is exactly the ridiculous premise upon which is based the idea that it is then okay to go ahead and convert these sites to palm kernel oil plantations. so very, very foolish. Even here in the Western Great Lakes, a much shorter growing season area, the regeneration of cut-over land is amazingly rapid. +oM