Ask Burton: Q: We live out in the country and would like to screen off our home from the road in front of the house. We don’t have a sprinkler system out there, but really want a screen of trees to break the noise and the sight line from the road. Any suggestions?

A: There’s a perfectly good native plant which will do what you wish. Eastern red cedar grows with good speed and basically needs little TLC. A screen of this plant will do what you want and do it without adding a lot of expensive irrigation piping to the area, although you will need to give the plants some hose watering until the plants are established. After that, you’re largely done with the maintenance! Healthy Eastern red cedar will only require irrigation in severe drought conditions.