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Hello, how far out from a 6-ft privacy fence should we plant 7-8 ft tall Norway spruce trees? How far apart should we plant them? We are planting these as a barrier against new construction behind our house.
I have the same question about a Dawn redwood. How far out from the fence to plant it. It is about 12-15 feet tall.
What really matters is how wide they'll be when they're full grown, how tall they are now doesn't make any difference at all. I'm assuming the Norway Spruce is a regular sized one and not a dwarf one?
If you look these up in Plant Files, it give the spacing for the N.S. as 20-30 feet and for the D.R. it lists 30-40 feet. What that means is the trees should be planted that distance away from each other (measured trunk to trunk), or if you're measuring distance from the fence, it would be half of that. If you're looking for a little more privacy, you could space them a little closer than what Plant Files lists, but I wouldn't recommend doing it much closer, otherwise the trees will be running into each other or the fence and that won't be healthy for them.
One last thing you should check though, there are different cultivars available for both these trees, and different cultivars may be shorter or narrower than others so if you know which one you have, it's best to search for information on the specific one you have. (the spacing I mentioned was for the straight species) Here are the Plant Files listings:
Norway spruce: [HYPERLINK@davesgarden.com]
Dawn redwood: [HYPERLINK@davesgarden.com]
