10 Hedges for Your Home Garden

Wintergreen Boxwood

Wintergreen Boxwood is a popular choice for hedges and formal garden designs due to its dense, glossy green foliage and rounded growth habit. It is a small evergreen shrub. It is a popular evergreen shrub commonly used in landscaping for its outstanding attributes. This compact and versatile plant hails from the Buxaceae family and is native to Japan and Korea. Its name, 'Wintergreen,' is derived from its glossy, dark green leaves, which retain their vibrant color throughout the winter months, making it an attractive option for providing year-round interest in gardens and landscapes. The Classic Appeal of Wintergreen Boxwood Wintergreen Boxwood is an excellent option for landscapers who are looking for a medium-sized shrub. This plant consists of narrow, deep brown stems with a thick coating of small, green leaves. It can grow up to around three feet in height and five feet in width. This plant's dense hedges and elegant appearance allow it to work well in any area where you want a traditional shrub. Attractive Leaves of the Wintergreen Boxwood The main appeal of this plant is its extensive greenery. The entire shrub contains small, oval-shaped leaves that grow every inch or two along the plant's stems. The leaves have a smooth appearance with minimal veining and a very regular shape. They're a deep green color that is one shade darker than emerald green. This thick mass of green leaves gives the shrub a very even appearance that makes it a lovely backdrop for other items in your landscape. It has an understated elegance that can complement any location. Wintergreen Boxwood Versatile Uses and Exciting Shaping Opportunities It is a favorite of gardeners because it is happy to take on whatever shape you might desire. Many people like to trim this shrub into tidy cubes or orbs that line their fences, sidewalks, and walls. Some gardeners also enjoy pruning it into cones or other decorative shapes to create an eye-catching focal point on the landscape. If you prefer to leave it natural, it creates dense, oval shrubs that are a nice filler for tree borders or larger flowerbeds. Lush Color All Year Round With Wintergreen Boxwood As you might be able to tell from the name of this shrub, one of its main characteristics is its ability to stay green throughout the winter. As an evergreen, this shrub continues to look bright and beautiful no matter the time of year. It doesn't change colors in fall, and its leaves won't fall off in the winter. Instead, it provides a touch of brilliant green to your landscape during every season. This cheerful burst of greenery can keep your garden looking lively during the entire year.

Privet Hedge

Privet Hedge is an evergreen shrub with glossy, dark green leaves and small, fragrant white flowers, commonly used for hedges and landscaping. It is a versatile and attractive shrub that offers a range of benefits when used in landscaping projects. Its adaptable nature, evergreen foliage, and various design applications have become popular among landscapers and gardeners. The privet hedge is officially known as the Ligustrum Ovalifolium, but gardeners often refer to it as the California Privet. It's native to Japan. However, it grows and thrives in many other countries, including the US. Homeowners and gardeners love it for its white flowers and ability to create privacy while adding to a home's curb appeal. Identifying Features of Privet Hedge It grows to heights of between 10 and 15 feet with a similar spread. In June and July, this hedge develops white flowers. Those blooms are usually between two and four inches long. The leaves are oval and typically grow to between one and two and a half inches long. It's considered a fast-growing shrub, and gardeners can expect it to gain one to two feet in height each year without pruning. Best Uses for Privet Hedge It is most commonly used as a living privacy fence or as garden mazes, and in English Gardens or Victorian-style gardens, it can reach heights of up to 15 feet. Gardeners can create thick, solid-looking walls with these bushes by planting them in a zigzagged double layer. Once these bushes have established themselves, they can be pruned to take certain shapes. Gardeners can even get creative with these bushes by leaving large gaps between the plants and installing arches or gates in order to create elaborate entrances. Excellent Companion Plants for Privet Hedge Gardeners who are looking to add depth and color around it can choose between many types of wildflowers, shrubs, and ornamental grasses. Some favorites include the sunshine ligustrum, peonies, lady's mantle, hostas, sedum, the New Zealand iris, boxwood, and Japanese holly. Gardeners and landscapers will enjoy it as part of a formal garden or living privacy fence. This versatile shrub can be pruned, shaped, and trained to grow around arches and wooden gates. It works well to soften concrete walkways, and it can add depth and interest to homes.

American Arborvitae

American Arborvitae is a versatile evergreen tree used for living and privacy fences with numerous pleasing attributes in landscaping. Native to North America, this hardy and low-maintenance tree has become a staple in many gardens and residential landscapes. Its exceptional qualities make it an excellent choice for various purposes, and here are some of the reasons why it is a beloved addition to landscaping. Are you looking to define your property or create a windbreak? If you are, you may be interested in the American Arborvitae. It's officially known as the Thuja occidentalis, which translates into the Western thuja. By its name, you'd think it grew primarily in the western United States and Canada, but that's not true, and it is evident in its common names, which include Eastern White Cedar and Northern White Cedar. In fact, this woody evergreen green primarily grows in central and eastern Canada and north-central and eastern United States. American Arborvitae Identification Features The tree is known for its dense foliage and column or cone shape. It reaches heights of between 23 and 30 feet and is typically three to five feet wide. Because of its narrow footprint, it can be planted close together to create a natural screen. Popular Uses for the American Arborvitae The tree is officially classified as a shrub, not a tree. Gardeners and landscapers typically use the tree as a windbreak and a living privacy fence. It can also provide privacy for balconies and second stories, and it can be planted in tight spaces, even next to buildings, because the roots only spread as far as the canopy. The Fast-Growing American Arborvitae Gardeners love this tree because it's fast-growing. It typically grows between three and four feet a year after it reaches a height of about two feet. This means that homeowners don't have to wait years for the shrub to mature enough to create an effective windbreak or privacy screen. Great Companion Plants for the American Arborvitae The tree grows well alongside boxwood shrubs. When planted at the front and rear of boxwoods, the tree becomes the endcaps. The tree can even be used to denote the entrances and exits in hedge mazes. If you're looking to create a layered look in your garden, hostas, geraniums, and Solomon's seal can be planted around the tree. The tree is well-known for its ability to break wind, muffle sounds, and create natural privacy barriers. It can even be grown in large containers with flowers to make statement pieces for your front or back porch.

Forsythia

Forsythia has vibrant yellow, bell-shaped flowers that bloom profusely in early spring before their green leaves emerge, creating a striking burst of color in gardens and landscapes. It is a deciduous shrub widely appreciated for its abundant and vibrant yellow flowers that herald the arrival of spring. It offers numerous landscaping benefits, making it a popular choice for gardens and outdoor spaces. One of the primary advantages of incorporating it into landscaping is its early-blooming nature. Make Your Yard More Yellow With The Forsythia Forsythia is unparalleled in its ability to fill yards with a profusion of golden colors. Their early-season blossoming is so abundant that it covers landscapes in a kaleidoscope of yellow hues, signaling the arrival of spring. Pollinators that emerge during the first signs of spring rely on the nectar produced by these blooms. The sight of these colorful, bell-shaped blossoms arranged so closely together along the stems is breathtaking. They can reach eight to ten feet in height and ten to 12 feet in width. Their bark is rough and gray-brown in color. They can be erect, rounded, mounded, or arching. Their branches can be straight or curved. You can plant them as focal pieces or in mass groups. Enjoy Changing-Color Leaves With The Forsythia In addition to their showy yellow blossoms, they also alter their leaves with the seasons. Depending on the time of year, the leaves transition from green to yellow to purple. They stay mostly green during the summer and then transition from yellow to deep purple hues throughout late autumn, right before they fall to the ground. These plants go dormant in the winter. Enjoy Fast Growth With The Forsythia They, particularly the bigger types, are shrubs that grow rapidly, often reaching a height of two feet in only 12 months. Because they grow fast, they can quickly fill up empty spaces in gardens and landscaping. Their fast growth also makes them work well as natural privacy screens. You can even grow them as hedges and borders for gardens and driveways. Their rapid growth nature increases their resilience to environmental stresses as well. Forsythia Offer Lots of Design Versatility In addition to their use as natural hedges and borders, forsythias provide a great deal of creative flexibility in terms of design. Planting them side by side along a garden path will cause them to grow inward, creating a natural archway. Some people use them to create focal points. Others use them to help with soil stabilization on sloped banks because of their deep, complex root systems that retain topsoil.