Fast growing trees

[plevenite]

My house takes quite a battering from the prevailing winds. I am considering planting some trees at a distance from the house to try and make a wind break.

Does anyone have any suggestions for relatively fast growing trees? Is there anything which is best avoided?

[Seedy]

I bought about 10 BG-sourced Leylandii from a well-known nursery, more as a "shield" from my next-door neighbours, early last year. One has since died and the other have grown perhaps a couple of inches; I'd suggest either leaving them off your list, or perhaps importing some real ones from the UK...
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Passer sa vie à lutter contre la connerie est le meilleur procédé pour mourir épuisé

[plevenite]

That's interesting as I have had success with leylandii here.

[Seedy]

I don’t know what conditions are like Chez Plevenite but I'm pleased to hear that.

It may be that we're too exposed - to sun in the summer and to wind/cold in the winter - up here or it may be a case of poor (or even too rich!) soil. We had several truck-loads of what was supposed to top-soil brought in when we terraced our ski-slope-masquerading-as-a-garden a couple of years back, together with a ton or two of tor. Things do seem to have gone wild this year, possibly due to the weather or perhaps because the soil-tor mixture has matured.

Sadly, soil conditions are clearly not acidic enough for 'Er Nibs to have the massive rhododendrons she likes, nor planted-out oleanders, albeit they are doing very well* in their pots. A foraging trip to Greece is planned soon-ish in search of the elusive Yellow Oleander, attempts to germinate seeds having proved unsuccessful.

I'm hoping to avoid the Massive Row of Tomatoes scenario this year, although they DO taste good but I've persuade PiL to plant some Black Krim tomatoes this year, courtesy of Amazon.

*Unlike my back when it comes to moving them in/out of the maze at the appropriate season....
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Passer sa vie à lutter contre la connerie est le meilleur procédé pour mourir épuisé

[moonlight]

Eucalyptus are very fast growing, if available here! They do take on lots of water, so a cesspit or soakaway would benefit!
They are "standard " use in Spain for that reason.
Regards

[Cliff]

I used Laurel to blot out my neighbor, they were about 60cm high when planted last spring and they have put on another metre since. They have the advantage of being evergreen without having to put up with pine needles. Also they can be trimmed back if they get too woody at the base whereas leylandii will not shoot up again from the base in later years and will insist on becoming tree like.

[Seedy]

I tried growing laurel here but it’s just too cold for them: in the winter it's often 7-9° lower here than in town, so well below -20 is common and most winters it can dip below -30 for days on end; since we're also exposed to north winds they just die outside.

There are a couple of varieties of eucalyptus that can theoretically survive - and as tall bushes rather than trees, which is preferable for us - but I've had no luck sourcing them in Bulgaria, albeit I haven't really tried that hard so far.
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Passer sa vie à lutter contre la connerie est le meilleur procédé pour mourir épuisé