4o8 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



October, 1910 



Suburban Windbreakers 



By E. P. Powell 



READER of American Homes and 

 Gardens wishes to know what will 

 serve best for a village windbreak. He 

 complains that the wind piles the snow 

 in heavy drifts around his yard, while in 

 summer the draft brings in dust. I under- 

 stand his difficulty to be where houses are 

 not very far apart. In some cases the draft starts at quite 

 a distance, gathering force and picking up side drafts until 

 it throws a pile directly in your path. A group of Norway 

 spruces, or a single large spruce planted in the core of such 

 a draft, will frequently break it up. A sweep of wind, how- 

 ever, needs a hedge or a longer windbreak of trees. I 

 prefer arbor vitae where the sweep is broad. This can be 

 used to form a hedge five, ten, or fifteen feet high, as you 

 please. It is good for forty or fifty years, if trimmed once 

 a year, in April or early May. None of these evergreens 

 must be cut later than that, nor must they be sheared three 

 or four times in a season. Cut just once, before the new 

 growth starts, and then let them alone till another year. 

 The shearing must be rather close, but never inside the 

 green leaf. There are no dormant buds on evergreen twigs 

 that will start out to remedy such trimming. 



Hemlock is more beautiful, and in the very long run may 

 be the best. If properly handled it can be kept in use for 

 a hundred years. It will bear shearing better than the 

 arbor vitae, and is as beautiful as a bed of carnations when 

 growing. The form of the arbor vitae should be kept 

 conical, but for some reason the hemlock likes to grow with 

 a rolling top, or roundish. The hemlock can be kept low 

 better than the arbor vitae ; but where you want a stiff, stout 

 and tall windbreak the arbor vitae is the best. If a breach 

 occurs in one of your hedges cut away the lower limbs and 

 set a new plant. Do this before you undertake to cut away 

 the dead or dying bush. However, bear in mind that these 

 breaches almost invariably occur, not from the cold weather, 

 but from overpruning. The Norway spruce, and some of 

 the pines will make very good hedges and windbreaks, so 

 long as they can be kept within bounds. They are likely 

 to become woody and irregular. 



Of deciduous plants there happens to be one so much 

 finer than all the rest for hedging, that it forms a class 

 by itself. I refer to the Tartarian or bush honeysuckle. 

 This occurs in three or four different colors, and these do 

 not form growth with equal rapidity. The red makes a 

 smaller bush, with lighter twigs, than the pink. The white 

 is stronger, but still more irregular than the pink — which 

 should be selected for forming a really perfect line of 

 growth. It grows with great rapidity until it begins to 

 blossom, and then it rises more deliberately. The natural 

 height in good garden soil is about ten or twelve feet. 

 It is very compact, and after it reaches eight or ten feet 

 it inclines to hang over some of its limbs. It will bear 

 shearing all you please, but of course you must not under- 

 take to make it as symmetrical as an evergreen hedge. 

 Simply cut away obtrusive branches, and let the hedge or 

 windbreak express itself with irregular contour — slightly 

 restrained. In May the flowers cover the hedge for about 

 two weeks. These are later covered with brilliant red or 

 yellow fruit, of which the birds are very fond. They ripen 

 just in the raspberry and blackberry season, drawing the 

 birds away from your field. If you wish to collect the birds 

 about your home, either in the village or the country, you 



can do it by having the tables spread for them with these 

 honeysuckle fruits. 



Beside the Tartarian honeysuckle I have not one special 

 preference. The common lilacs will do very well, but they 

 run to suckers so badly that they will become nearly flower- 

 less, unless constantly cleaned of these. A row of the new 

 French lilacs, set about ten feet feet apart, will be exceed- 

 ingly beautiful, and useful as well. These are mostly 

 doubles or semi-doubles, and in a great range of shade. 

 The Persian lilacs are all right to fill up a gap or stop a 

 draft, but the stalks are to slim, and inclined to drop 

 over with their heavy heads of flowers. The barberry is 

 sometimes used, but the common barberries do not make 

 good form, lopping in every direction. The Siberian is 

 much better, not growing so high, and is very compact; but 

 I have a seedling which grows about six feet high, and with 

 flower stems longer, as well as far more brilliant fruit — 

 this variety makes a very good hedge row. The weigelas 

 are perfect enough for a while, and very beautiful, but the 

 old stalks get brittle and die out unaccountably. Perhaps 

 the hydrangias can be set down as really good. The new 

 variety of white flowering is almost perpetual in bloom, 

 and hardy as an oak. I think it was introduced by E. Y. 

 Teas, of Evansville, Indiana, at least he has it in stock. 

 Some other shrubs will do fairly well, and there may be 

 some that are as good as the Tartarian honeysuckle — al- 

 though I have not found them. 



I am particularly partial to a close row of low-headed 

 dwarf apples. I am sorry that these trees are not more 

 common in suburban yards; and I think nurserymen have, 

 as a rule, given over cataloguing them. They grow about 

 ten feet in diameter, or can be kept about that form, and 

 some of them. In fruit, are most beautiful. In flower they 

 are great nosegays. A row o-f them, with limbs reaching 

 close to the ground, and growing compact, will break the 

 wind admirably in summer, and split it up pretty well in the 

 winter. The roundheaded Seckel pear Is much of the same 

 sort, giving you also a satisfactory load of excellent fruit. 

 Other pears, like Buffam, Sheldon and Louise Bonne will 

 grow quite close together, and very erect. These also will 

 furnish fruit and sweet flowers as well as break the wind. 



Grape vines are never used as much as they should be. 

 Looped and twined all about a tree, or a row of trees, and 

 hanging down their festoons of limbs and grapes, they make 

 a wall almost as perfect as one of boards. Or you may 

 erect a strong screen and run your grapes over it. Here 

 again you get bushels of grapes as well as a windbreak. 

 The Virginia Creeper can be used. If you prefer the brilliant 

 color of autumn; but if I used the Creeper I would plant 

 with it the common white clematis (the Virginiana), or the 

 paniculata, which blooms quite late in the season and is 

 superb both In leafage and flowers. 



Of course I am leaving out the consideration of hedges 

 and windbreaks for the open country. An ideal windbreak 

 of this sort is a belt of trees as tall or taller than the orchard 

 itself. Such windbreaks should be planted as early as the 

 homestead is bought or designed. Good trees to start with 

 are mountain ash, wild cherries, lindens, and Russian mul- 

 berries. In the southwest the plum tree grows In thickets 

 that are of decided value. The catalpa is admirable every- 

 where, east or west or south. Most of the pear trees are 

 hardy, and make good windbreaks, if the tight growing 

 sorts, like Seckel, are planted with Buffum or Sheldon. 



