No personal knowledge of this exact issue. I would think urea would burn the foliage. Can you use one set of sprinklers to spray water without spraying urea or pre-emergent?

Four to 6 feet from the road is WAY too close to the road for Leyland Cypress. They grow fast and they grow huge, particularly if you water them. 120 Leyland for a 300 foot section seems way too many.

How are you planning on keeping them from growing above 10 feet tall? Pruning trees taller then you can easily reach with your arms is tricky.

What is your climate? They are notoriously vulnerable to wind and ice storms. Somewhat short lived trees. Good with road salt, though.

where are you.. whats the base soil ... is the spraying prior to planting ??

never plant a monoculture ... as you can lose them all in some catastrophe down the road ..

lawn sprinklers rarely water trees properly ...

conifers are trees ... they never stop growing ... so you will be out there.. topping them just about every year ... forever ... see link for general potential ... and as ed implies... ten feet usually means at least 4 feet up a ladder for most of us ... and thats a lot of ladder moving over distance ....

are you talking farm spraying??? ... you might want to talk to your county soil conservation office ... as tree lines such as this are within their work ...

ken

https://www.google.com/search?q=Cupressus+%C3%97+leylandii&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiltcOzlo7LAhXIw4MKHesBBTIQ_AUIBygB&biw=899&bih=745&dpr=0.9

I am in Long Island, NY. The base soil is between 2 and 3 inches of topsoil, then just regular fill underneath. I did not plant trees yet, and come spring i plan to use lawn sprinklers to spray pre-emergent, and later on, urea. Im not sure if the trees will be planted sooner than that or after, but at some point they will be planted and at some point there will be overspray of pre-emergent in spring and Urea during throughout warm season. I am not talking about any farm overspray. I also do not plan to water the leylands with sprinklers, probably a soaker zone.

I am sort of at a loss for deciding what to do for privacy if leylands are not a good option for what I am planning to do. I kind of wanted everything to be uniform, that's why I was going for the same kind of tree. I thought leylands were ok because they grow fast, but I understand the maintenance will be rediculous.

Here is the thing, my lawn has been an open space for quite some time with no fencing, so I am open to suggestions on how to block out this 300 foot space. The new warm season is approaching and I am trying to make plans so the yard can be enjoyed. Hopefully someone can steer me in the right direction. Thanks for everyone's input.

I was reading an article that says figure what height you want the leylands and then divide by four and that is the spacing. We want a 10' hedge so were thinking 2.5 feet apart. At this spacing, it will require approximately 120 Leylands for an approximate 300 foot screen. -Please - go talk to your local garden center or nursery, to get accurate information - Also look at the link that Ken provided - 2.5ft apart is too close. You would may be better off planting a fence.

i said never a mono culture...

then sam posts pix of a monoculture that is failing in toto ...

and then says .. ignore what i said..

good luck with all that ...

in my MI ... snowload country ... multi leadered arbs are another monoculture that.. some time.. somewhere down the line... will fail ...

the ones in this pic.. seems to be single leader ... and MD is not MI re: snowload ...

ken

LOL everyones input is greatly appreciated. Ok Thanks for the photos. The Emerald Arborvitaes look nice. I know there are different types of these. Are Emeralds preferred?

I do see a lot of people using these in an attempt to create a privacy barrier but it seems it is always a failed attempt. I don't know if they don't plant them close enough or what? How can I plant them to block everyone out? What size should I plant? Am I looking at it being pricier than Leyland Cypress? We are talking a 300foot span here. They do look nice. Do they grow fast? So many questions.

The trick is that if you plant fast growing things too close together they eventually crowd each other and outgrow the spot. If you plant slow growing trees a bit farther apart you have to wait, and there will be gaps until they fill in.

One one solution is to plant two staggered rows...one of something fast growing, one of something long lived. The shrubs in front block the gaps.

i've seen plenty off successful privacy screens like you originally visualized done with yew, but that grows slowly. I've also seen it done successfully with arborvitae...grow a bit slower then Leyland, but longer lived and one of the few trees that tolerate such close spacing.

Personally, I'm a big fan of holly as a screen. The berries make it a bit more interesting and add wildlife value. Those tend to grow slowly, though.

Emerald arborvitae is one specific variety, Thuja occidentalis 'Smaragd'. It is extremely popular but more prone to root rot than usual for T. occidentalis - there can apparently be no puddling or other sogginess where you plant this one, if you want it to last.

Are you referring to the Thuja Green Giant Arborvitae? After doing a little research, I think this may be what I am looking for. They grow 5 feet a year which is nice. I am seeing spacing at 5 feet apart for privacy. That would be about 60 of them for a 300' span.

tye22tye, I understand that you are posting from Long Island. My post was to steer you away from Leyland Cypress, it is a lousy, mongrel of a plant and subject of much negative discussion on this forum. LC is lousy if planted by itself or with several of the same.

You would do well to search for 'Emerald' which does well on L.I., just keep the deer off of it.

Forget about the one size fits all paranoia about monocultures.

Green Giants will get much too large for your purposes - like the Leylands, these mature into large, 60' trees with a significant spread (15-25'). Keeping them at a very short 10' height will drive you nuts with maintenance issues. And I would not consider planting them much less than 10' apart. Privacy screen spacing guidelines found online seem to ignore the growth habit of the plants in question and generally lead to problems down the road.

Really, the American arborvitaes (Thuja occidentalis ctvs.) make much more sense. Yes, they do not grow as fast as either the GG's or the Leylands but they also will not exceed your desired height or other space limitations any time soon either, and you can purchase them already in reasonable heights (6-8' are very common) for a reasonable price as well. And you can fill in with any number of other broadleaved evergreen shrubs if you wish.

And I'd suggest you plan some other method of delivering a pre-emergent herbicide or fertilizer than through your sprinkler system should you even need them. That is just not a great idea for any number of reasons!!

I'm not saying Leyland cypress are bad trees...they are great in the right spot. That spot is what ken would call "acreage"...an argument can be made for planting a bunch as a fast privacy screen in a rural area, and planting a row of something longer lived behind as "understudies". They are a bit too big for a suburban hedge and a bit too weak for near the coast.

Arborvitae will also get too big...but that's an inevitable problem of anything that can get to 10 feet fast,. Arborvitae will likely be tougher and longer lived.

The concern about "mono-culture" is
1.) If the plant you chose is afflicted by a disease, it can spread through the neighborhood like wildfire and kill EVERYTHIG if everything you plant is the same species. (My parents neighborhood had this happen...all the black pine the developer planted died and suddenly no one had privacy).
2.) If everything looks the same, and one plant dies, the smaller replacement you put in will stick out like a sore thumb.
Some people prefer the homogeneous look...you just have to decide if you like it enough to take the risk.

Ok honestly I'm really trying to narrow it down here. Ok we have decided against Leyland Cypress. However, I do not like the traditional Emerald Arborvitae. I believe this is the one that everyone uses around the neighborhood in a failed attempt to build a privacy barrier. Too many times I see that they either do not plant enough, not plant close enough, or they grow too slowly.

Let's assume I had narrowed it down to either Thuja Green Giant, or Nelly Stevens Holly. We are kicking around the idea of these two plants. While I understand that they are very different from one another in looks, I have some questions to make my decision:

1) How is the growth rate of Nelly Stevens Holly compared to Thuja Green Giant?

2) If I was to choose Thuja Green Giant, I may go with 4 to 6 foot plants. I am leaning toward two staggered rows to speed privacy. It looks like the recommendation are 8 feet apart in each row and the rows themselves should be 4 feet apart. What would the pattern(single or double rows)/measurements be for the Nelly Stevens Holly? We want privacy sooner than later.

3) What size Nelly Stevens Holly to start off with?

4) What is the maintenance comparison of these two plants? It seems to me that while the Green Giant grows fast, you don't have to be as perfect when cutting it. The Nelly Stevens Holly on the other hand, assuming it does not grow as wild, may require more tedious, time consuming maintenance because it has to be trimmed formally and perfectly. Am I right?

5) Do the Nelly Stevens Holly keep their leaves during winter?

6) How hardy is it? Does it stand up to pruning a good amount if you decided to shape it into something weird?

7) Do they stand up to snow and cold? I'm in Long Island, NY.

Thanks everyone.

1.) Holly is much slower.

4.) I'd think holly would require less maintenance...it grows slower, so needs pruning less often. This partly depends on what look you are going for...if you are going for the traditional, formal square hedge of holly, that might be more work then the "row of trees" look some people use with arborvitae. If you are going for a naturalistic row of rounded bushes, the holly would definitely be easier.

5.) Yes.

6.) Should take to pruning pretty well. I know some varieties of holly can be used for topiary.

7.) It should be. I'm not that familiar with that type of holly, but I'm
North of you and colder then you, and I see plenty of happy holly here.
If you are concerned about cold hardiness, there are a million
varieties of holly, several of which are even more cold hardy. (eg.
Blue Princes, American Holly)

Nellie Stevens Holly is actually sounding and looking better. Where can you recommend I purchase 60 of these? Should I buy locally at a a nursery, or should I buy online and have delivered? Are there any reputable online places in particular?

It sounds like you want results fast...so I'd go with a local nursery. Online places are great if you want tiny trees cheap and are patient, or want something unusual your local nursery doesn't carry. If you wanted arborvitae you could go with the New York State Nursery, but they don't carry the precise variety you are discussing.

Online I see a place selling 1 to 2 foot for $20 or 2 to 3 foot for $49. The extra foot for an extra $30 seems a little unreasonable. But i guess that what they go for. I may tackle this in the spring unless I can find bigger ones locally. Thanks for the help everyone.

Prices being markedly higher for each increment in container size is typical. You are paying the grower to have kept it in production longer - including the cost of re-potting.

I hate to say it, but thuja is cheaper then holly.

edlincoln....i am seriously going back and forth still between the two lol.

Anyway, can someone tell me what root system is best for either Thuja Green Giant Arborvitae or Nellie Stevens Holly when I decide and purchase? Root ball, potted, etc.? I don't even know if the hollys come in root ball. I havent seen them.

It depends on the size and the quality of the nursery. Bare root is cheaper and gives really experienced people more control and lets you inspect the roots, but you have to have the time to plant them when they arrive. I like potted for small trees because it gives you more planting time flexibility, but lots of more experienced folks hate it because there are lots of ways a bad nursery can butcher the roots of potted specimens. (ie letting the thing get root bound) If you buy them big, balled & burlapped may be the only option.

+1 against buying Leyland Cypress. They are crap. I learned from experience. Just don't.

Pick a variety of native evergreen trees and make a random wall of them. Let them come up naturally, who cares how close they're planted. They will naturally compete and you will have a beautiful, natural wooded look.