When I planted a tree at my daughter's school, I was afraid that the hundreds of kids on the playground would pull twigs off the small tree and rip the bark. So I planted some other plants at the base of the tree to distract them. I planted mini-roses not for the thorns, but so the girls could come and pick flowers instead of leaves and twigs off the tree. And I planted a lavender, and a daisy so they could pick those flowers too. This was on a school playing feild with hundreds of kids at recess, so I did have to put three tree stakes around it, and I wrapped three foot tall hog wire around that. The flowers grew right through the 4" hogwire until you couldn't see the fence, and the flowers were picked off right up to the fence line. It's almost like the kids 'mow' or hedgeprune the bushes and leave the tree alone, even though they could easily reach it.

Terrine: You have wonderful wisdom--much appreciated. And, as bad as this storm was on my favorite groves of trees, every time I see the reports about what this storm did to people in places like the Jersey Shore, I realize that any losses I have suffered in my woods are nothing. By the way, I grew up in NJ and enjoyed the Jersey shore regularly--I know just what was lost. And how the people are suffering. Horrible! But, to put things in perspective, my timberland is still an incredible treasure. Nature giveth, and nature taketh away. But mostly I have seen, and will continue to see, the giving. Ken: as for pictures--I think I can get a good picture from a distance of the grove in Hampshire County that had the worst destruction. Because most of the trees there lost their tops, they will have good sun exposure and will grow new tops in just a few years. The ones that won't be able to do that are those single trees broken in the dense forest--some of these were absolute beauties. And some lost just too much of their crowns to recover, regardless. In additiion, I can easily get good pictures of the damage to the young and/or understory hemlocks. When I go up again in the next few days I will make picture taking a priority. Last time I had no interest--I was too busy surveying the damage, and "surviving" in my little trailer with no electricity and no water --Spruce

Nature in east N America is tougher in tooth & nail than the forested areas of the NA west (and west Europe). Some major reasons: 1. Continental climate -- extreme/rapid temp changes. Trunk-bark cracking on the south side killed three ~80' Norway maples at my house from the bitter-cold 76/77 and 77/78 winters. The fourth one that had shade on its trunk from a garage had no problem. 2. Spring/summer violent thunderstorm winds -- especially bad on lush, fully-leafed hardwoods. 3. Wet snow/ice-storms -- more common in E NA. Total snow amounts aren't directly important -- the stickiness is (then the amounts are important). 4. Hurricanes & tropical storms in late summer/autumn. Sandy-storm... 5. Summer high-humidity & associated fungi & bacteria. 6. Winds. Not that the west has slower winds, but larger & more extensive mountains provide more potential shelter. Coastal redwoods get tallest behind shelter of the coastal ranges. The tallest east-coast forests are in sheltered coves of the Smokies. 7. Lightning. Certainly in the US southeast and southern plains, but even in western MD, prb'ly my favorite tree growing up, a 90' Nordmann fir, was mostly (except for one branch) done in by a direct strike. The northwest-exposed sycamore on my lot at 115' is hardly gaining height any more. Not that it doesn't try, but invariably the strongest Tstorm of the summer shreds leaves/new sprouts off the top. But it's spreading out & thickening at a good rate. Where I grew up, a nearby open-grown 350 yr old white oak (8 ft dia) was a mere 90' tall, but over 100' wide. There was no branch damage at the top, just the growth slowing to a crawl there. The lesson for a tree seems to be, if you want to live centuries in eastern NA, keep a relatively low but wide profile, and have trunk-bark thick enough to insulate against freeze-thaw cracking... Prb'ly a dozen of the 100'+ white pines that grow above the canopy have been broken/uprooted & vanquished just downwind of me on the lower slopes in 9 yrs. They need physical shelter and/or a dense, self-protecting "grove", like the original PA stands, to get taller. This prb'ly goes for any tall canopy trees here. I noticed Spruceman's Norway spruce & hemlock stands looked quite dense & got hammered, but that just shows localized extreme events can damage or even destroy any stand no matter what. The 1994 ice-storm in VA caused a whole nearby east-facing slope (at least 30 acres) of mostly 100'+ tuliptrees to uproot. It must have been like dominoes -- the highest-slope trees sagging downslope against their neighbors, finally giving way, then w/the added weight, those trees uprooting, etc, etc, down to the bottom. A sight of carnage just a mile downslope of me. That ice-storm produced four inches of liquid-equivalent sticking to surfaces. 4" liquid is equivalent in weight to ~40" snow -- but all of it sticking.

Sometimes on forums like this, people seem not to post if they have nothing nice to say. If you search the archives you will see that almost no one here has a high opinion of Leylands. Please, spare future generations the same problems you're having now by not planting any more that will just blow over in the next Sandy 30 years later, or decline from disease sooner. It's particularly funny to see attempts at creating an "estate" feeling by surrounding the house w/hideous walls of leylandii, which look particularly comical when a few of them topple over. At the very least, plant Thuja 'Green Giant' instead, it is more disease resistant. And because it grows slower, less likely to outgrow its roots. Among other things - put some spruces and pines in there if you must stick to cheap conifers. A screen planting should have a variety of plants so that if one becomes prone to a disease you don't lose the entire effect. I think hollies are undervalued as screening plants. Nurseries don't push them because they are more expensive to produce as salable plants than most [screening] conifers. You do have to wait longer though, they are definitely slower than leylands. They don't get as much love here because they aren't conifers. Nellie Stevens is ok but the very large growing hybrid I X koehneana would be even more useful for your lot size. Sadly it's almost unavailable in the trade. McLean Nursery in Balto., MD, has small plants for a reasonable price but they don't ship. The grow about 1' a year for the first 5 years, but then speed up to about 2' a year. As people have posted here previously, the real solution to quick screening is to think about what you are really trying to achieve. Are you trying to entirely block the view from anywhere in your yard to anywhere beyond it? Or do you have an area where you sit that you'd like privacy. In that case build a small screened area with some trellis lathes and grow some annual vines on it.