There are many man-made and quite durable materials these days that can be considered for the installation of an effective as well as reasonably aesthetic privacy screen. Nevertheless, many gardeners still prefer the special charm of a natural privacy screen made of evergreen shrubs and hedges.

The Thuja offers evergreen protection all year round

Evergreen plants for a privacy hedge

The decisive criterion of an evergreen privacy hedge is the fact that it offers a constant privacy screen all year round and does not become transparent due to falling leaves in autumn. Therefore, the beech trees used for hedge planting are usually counted in this category, although their leaves already turn brown in autumn. Since the leaves remain on the branches until spring, as with some types of privet, these are not really evergreen, strictly speaking, but are still sufficiently opaque until new growth occurs. In contrast, the following trees and shrubs are actually green all year round for planting a green privacy screen:

  • spruces
  • Subspecies of Thuja occidentalis
  • yew trees
  • cherry laurel
  • bamboo
  • ilex

Pros and cons of cherry laurel as an evergreen hedge plant

Compared to the other hedges, the cherry laurel has been increasingly present as a plant species in the new planting of privacy hedges over the past few years. Last but not least, this may be due to the fact that new cultivars are becoming more and more winter-hardy, even in our latitudes, and young plants are no longer so easily destroyed by winter frosts. However, cherry laurel hedges also offer particularly good nesting opportunities for native songbirds and thus make an important contribution to nature conservation in your own garden. You should only be careful if you plant a cherry laurel hedge along a wall or on a particularly exposed slope: Very pronounced temperature changes between day and night can become a problem for the different types of cherry laurel during the winter months.

Evergreen for the privacy hedge: the boxwood

In the past, the boxwood with its squat, bushy growth was very common in Central Europe. However, various diseases and pests such as the box tree moth are increasingly causing problems for the plants. Since this fight is difficult to win, if in doubt, you should currently switch to other types of evergreen hedge plants.

tips

Be careful with bare-root plants: These should only be planted under really good weather conditions and at the recommended planting time. The critical growth phase of various hedges is less problematic if plants are bought with a root ball or in appropriate plant containers.

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Garden design