If the old arbs were healthy, the new ones should be fine. Yes, buy small, no, don't fertilize. Small ones will adapt better but I'd be tempted to mix thing up rather than having all arbs. Maybe add a spruce or two. How wide can the space allow them to grow?

tj

what tsu said ....

and i will add.. buy small.. and INSURE SINGLE LEADER PLANTS .... which usually make them more bullet proof in the snowload area ...

the injury to your old ones..w as when snow/ice accumulated inside the canopy of multiple leaders ... splaying them out.. or my name isnt adrian .... [oh wait.. it isnt] ...

on small ones.. you can also take out multiple leaders yourself ....

my county soil conservation district office offers them for very cheap at the proper planting time in spring .... you might want to see if yours does also ....

i also like the diversity suggestion.. if the prior planting had been diversified.. you wouldnt have lost the whole sight block ... eh???

ken

Yes, I do have a lot of room/space along this fence line. It goes the whole length of my back yard and the planting area where I would like to put these shrubs is about 40-50 feet long so I can put as much room as I'd like between the shrubs. This space held 18 Arborvitaes and I only plan on adding around 8 of them to create a privacy screen along the area where my deck is, so that we're not constantly looking at the neighbors behind us and visa verse.

So you think mixing it up is a good idea. When you say spruce, are you talking about a shrub? I like this idea. I'm on my way to Home Depot in a few to see if I can purchase 8 small (2 feet maybe) Aborvitaes but will also look at other options while I'm there. I'd like to plant them now while the wholes are fresh and the air is at a good temperature.

Thanks for your suggestions Ken and tj, they are much appreciated.

Linda

You could use smaller (not shrubby, but dwarf) spruces that grow slower than the arbs put in front, or thin taller ones right with or staggered with the arbs. Whichever you prefer. So the area is 40-50 feet long, how deep or wide is it? Also, could you expand on "we have a high water table in the area where the shrubs were"?

And any chance of a pic of the area?

tj

Let me see, it's about 4-5 feet wide. I will take a photo of this are tomorrow, I've been working all afternoon pulling out roots and I've called it a day. Well I've been told that we have a high water table in our neighborhood, where a lot of the homes around here were built on clay years ago and so the water doesn't drain as quickly as it should. The area in front of where the original arborvitaes were stays wet longer then any other area in my yard.

Oh wait, I have photos of this are when the originals where here. Hope I can get the photo up.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:118823}}

The photo above is my yard about 3 years ago, the Arborvitaes looked great then, it was before the ice storm, but now they're gone and so is that pine tree in the photo. The pine tree fell two weeks ago when hurricane Irene blew through our city!

This photo below is what the Arborvitaes looked like after the ice storm.

Here is a link that might be useful:

To post the pix, copy the HTML code right into the message area.

Before the storm

{{gwi:118823}}

After the storm

{{gwi:810850}}

Ouch. I guess they didn't bounce back.

For that application, for you, I'd say stick with all arbs.

If it were me, I'd stagger some Picea omorika 'Pendula' or 'Pendula Bruns' or maybe a Picea glauca 'Pendula' or Chamaecyparis nootkatensis 'Green Arrow' in there and fill in the corner with a bed that extended out past your spruce full of a few shrubs and some dwarf and mini conifers, but hey, I'm a conifer nut.

tj

P.S. To other conifer folks- she won't find much under Cupressus nootkatensis 'Green Arrow'.

In the first picture, you can see a small flower bed at the end of the arborvitaes, well that is gone, I now have shrubs in that space. The shrubs are Pinky Winky Hydrangea, a Winter berry male "Jim Dandy", an American Cranberry "redwing" and a Blue Muffin Viburnum. They're all a good size, especially the red wing. That's about 7 feet now. I need to get a pollinator for both viburnums, red wing and blue muffin.

I have one last question. When planting the arborvitaes, do I need to pull out all the roots or can I leave some in there knowing that they will eventually die. There are just so many. I have the whole already there, just need to clean them out and amend them somewhat.

I like conifers too, I think they really so wonders for the landscape, not to mention that they're not a lot of work to take care of. I'm getting tired of working on my flower bed every day. Want to start planting conifers instead.

Many thanks for all your help!

Linda

You can leave the old roots and its best not to amend the soil.

tj