Quote:
Originally Posted by SAMIAM
I prefer hemlock to pine. Both are soft wood and not much good for burning except as kindling but pine trees drop pitch all over everything.....not much fun to get off your vehicle and even worse when your pets track it in. Also, in the spring pine pollen covers our bay from one end to the other and leaves a long yellow slick on the shoreline. Pines grow so tall that they are no good for privacy and the crowns grow so large that they block the sun for very large areas in your yard or garden.
I gradually got rid of most of my pines over the years (thankfully before the shoreline protection act) and kept all of the hemlocks. We trim them and they are lush and thick all the way to the ground in some cases. If you start when they are small 6' to 8' and trim them, they grow like a hedge....excellent privacy screen and nice all year round. I find them to be pretty hardy...only lost one or two over the years.
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That yellow pine pollen is suspended throughout the top three feet of Lake Winnipesaukee's surface waters: "Bed-fisherman" can't get strikes from nesting Smallmouth Bass if the bass can't see the lure.
An attack of pine pitch isn't TEOTWAWKI: Just apply WD-40 or turpentine:
http://www.rvnetwork.com/index.php?s...11&#entry60611
If you drive Rt 16 at all, you'll see roadside vendors of "
camp firewood"—which is mostly White Pine. (It does burn satisfyingly-
hot).
One Hemlock log keeps a woodstove "comfy"
overnight.
I do like Hemlocks as a privacy hedge:
what isn't to like is:
1) Know of anyone trucking-in hemlock needles for ground cover?
2) Know of anyone advertising their cottage that is "nestled in Hemlocks"?
3) Ever seen shorelines that are severely eroding due to Hemlock needle "duff"?
4) Ever heard "Whispering Hemlocks"?
5) Ever seen "Cathedral Hemlocks"?
6) Did Henry David Thoreau
write of Hemlocks?
7) Can New Hampshire
learn from Minnesota?
8) Or even Massachusetts?
