Looking for privacy from the neighbors?

Sometimes you just want to escape to your back yard and enjoy some peaceful “me”time. Other times you need to cover up some unsightly views of the neighboring properties.

Or perhaps you purchased a home with a wooded lot and now the developer has decided to place a street behind your property thus removing your wooded and secluded edge of your property.

What’s a homeowner to do when one of these things happen?

You could build a fence of wood, chainlink or plastic. It can be expensive and certain cities have codes and permits you have to obtain. Inspections need to be done and who knows what else?

A living fence could be the answer to your dilemma. So many of my clientele want to obtain some privacy or definition between adjacent neighboring properties. When considering a living fence, one needs to first consider many things before purchasing.

The first is to decide if you want an evergreen or deciduous tree or shrub?

Evergreens provide year round privacy, they can provide a sound barrier from street noises, reduce snow levels and act as a living snow fence, as well as a windbreak to protect areas from harsh winds.

Deciduous trees or shrubs provide more variety, spring or summer flowering and fall colors. The downside is they do not provide a year round screen.

The next thing is to decide how high you want your screen. Have someone stand in the area you are considering height or place a ladder to visually give you an idea of height.

The most popular evergreens we sell for screens are arborvitae. These come in many different heights and widths. If you want a fast pyramidal evergreen, consider ‘green giant’.

Green Giant is the fastest growing arborvitae. It can reach 30-35’ tall with a 15’ width. It has a nice central leader and grows well in our soil and climate.

Emerald Green arborvitae grow up to 12’ tall by 4’ wide. It can be easily trimmed and kept any size.

A good deciduous hedge is rose of sharon or burning bush. Both have the potentional to reach 8-12 feet tall depending on variety. Slightly smaller, I have seen nice hedges of miss Kim or Korean lilac which take shearing well, offer fragrant purple flowers and can reach 6’ tall.

Width is your next consideration. If you have a narrow space, you may want to consider boxwood which can reach heights of 3-5’ tall and is easily shearable and kept any width. The slender arborvitae emerald green or sky rocker junipers would be great as well.

Now if you have all the room in the world, a nice mixture of Norway spruce combined with some viburnum or even forsythia can add some interest. A bed made in the shape of a kidney can accomplish your desire for privacy. Another combination of blue spruce and gold colored gold thread or vintage gold cypress is a great palette of color and nice addition to the landscape.

Spacing of hedges or screens vary. If you want instant results, you can plant as close as 2-3’ apart. Larger spruces or pines can go 10-12’ apart. I would research widths of plants you decide on, divide by 2 and space accordingly. Consider the mature width of plants in your planning stage and this will dictate how many plants you will require.

You can stagger plants in almost two lines or rows and achieve some privacy a little quicker with proper design.

Do some homework before you head out to your favorite nursery to view some plants. Now’ s a great time to plant! Cool evenings, less watering, fall rains and awesome root growth are a few benefits to planting now. Plus many sales are happening this time of the year.