A DIY Guide to Planting Privacy Hedges

As the population keeps growing the privacy we once had seems to be declining. We all are entitled to have privacy and the best place to have it is in our own back yards. I was not used to having neighbors living close to me and when I moved to the neighborhood neighbors was everywhere. We seemed to never have privacy. I knew that this had to change and fast. We contemplated about how we should handle the situation. We had young children, a family dog and wanted to install a swimming pool sometime in the future. All of these were great reasons to place a privacy fence around our back yard and the soon the better.

We need to decide what kind of privacy fence to place around our property line. Fencing seemed like a very expense way to go. If we chose to install a wooden fence we would have yearly up keep such as painting or water sealer. These choices did not seem appealing to me. Then we can up with the idea to plant privacy hedges around our property line.

Planting privacy hedges would add a great look to the landscaping around our house. The neighbors would not have to look at a fence and we would have the maintenance free privacy we set out to get. The advantage of installing a privacy wall such as a fence is the speed. You would get instant privacy opposed to the privacy hedges which would have to grow.

The pros to planting privacy hedges is the cost, the great colorful look and if applicable the fruit that the hedges could bare. One of the most popular hedges is the shrub. When purchasing shrubs to make into a privacy fence be sure to purchase the ones that do well as hedges. Some shrubs are meant to be planted alone.

We chose to plant tall flowering bushes for a privacy screen look. We planted the Blackhaw Viburnum which is similar to a shrub. This type of shrub yields white flowers in May and turns into bluish-black edible fruit at harvest time. This shrub has beautiful dark green foliage which changes to purple to a reddish-bronze to a crimson in the fall. This type of shrub grows to the height of 12-15' and spreads 8-12'.

Some other types of privacy hedges for you to think about and chose from are Rose of Sharon, Compact American cranberry bush viburnum, Evergreen shrub, Emerald arborvitae, Irish Junipers, Little Red Holly and Eastern Hemlock.