Older Homes with Cedar Trees (Harvest: neighborhood, fencing, rail)

[y8tiger]

I've noticed a lot of the older homes in the area have their property lined with Cedar Trees.

This is common throughout the South, but I never actually stopped to think about it.

I read that Cedar Trees have deep roots and make good wind breaks.

I suspect they helped these homes weather the storms over the years.

Are there any other reasons the old timers would have planted these trees around the perimeter of their land?

[southernnaturelover]

I suspect at some point there may have been a fence, and then the birds deposited the seeds resulting in the trees.

Down here on the coast, Red Cedars actually don't hold up to hurricane winds all that well. I've seen plenty of them uprooted.

[harry chickpea]

Cedar is a brittle wood, not good in high winds. It would be a relatively easy wood for a farmer to make into rot resistant fenceposts or rail fencing. Cedar has also been used traditionally for shingles, but trees grown with that in mind would be long gone. (I haven't noticed what you describe)

FWIW cedar tress are really good at messing up TV and cell reception.

[Howest2008]

Originally Posted by y8tiger

I've noticed a lot of the older homes in the area have their property lined with Cedar Trees.

This is common throughout the South, but I never actually stopped to think about it.

I read that Cedar Trees have deep roots and make good wind breaks.

I suspect they helped these homes weather the storms over the years.

Are there any other reasons the old timers would have planted these trees around the perimeter of their land?

They certainly smell good...........

[dwhisent]

I have a row of about a dozen of them, probably 30-40 feet tall, along the back of my lot, next to a ditch. Makes a great privacy barrier. I just assumed my neighborhood was formerly a field and the farmer left the trees next to the ditch to help stop erosion, but it's possible there was once a fence there. I think the neighborhood is on the order of 25 years old.

[hey teach]

Most likely because Cedar trees are plentiful in the south and easy to transplant.

[southernnaturelover]

FWIW, what everyone calls "cedar trees" in the South aren't really cedar at all, they are a type of juniper.

[y8tiger]

I had heard Eastern Red Cedar was also known as Virginian Juniper.

They sure seem to have stood the test of time at the farmland in an around the Harvest Area.

Google "Jeff, AL" and it will center the map on the old Kelly Family Homestead and the source of Indian Creek. There are some good examples in that area.