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Most hedges are hardly noticed by viewers, much like the walls of a room. Walls, fences, and hedges can define the boundaries of your landscape. Most gardeners grow hedges (a natural fence made of bushes) as decorative boundaries around lawns and flower beds. Try to imagine decorating your living room with no walls. You would have a hard time putting your furniture in the right places. Outdoor living space works the same way. Hedges, fences and garden walls are multi-functional; they can define boundaries, screen undesirable views, give shelter from the wind, provide privacy, and make a backdrop for other plants.
Hedges, sometimes called living walls, are shrubs or trees planted close together in a straight or curved pattern. Planting distances depend on the type of shrub you plant and the maximum size it will grow. You can plant various evergreens such as pines and spruces from three to four feet apart; just one to two feet for evergreens such as hemlocks, yews and arborvitae, and twelve to fifteen inches for privet hedge, which is a deciduous shrub used quite often for hedges. Always check the planting directions on the container for spacing guidelines or ask your local garden center professional for advice.
Hedges can be classified as formal or informal. Formal evergreen hedges contain plants that are naturally uniform in shape such as the evergreen yew, juniper, spruce, boxwood and holly. They are not as columnar but full of texture and compact. Informal hedges are usually a mixture of different kinds of shrub, many flowering shrubs, such as rhododendron, azalea, forsythia, lilac, hydrangea and viburnum. These hedges don’t need much pruning unless a stray branch needs to be clipped.
Hedges act as a psychological barrier that deters vandals and robbers. Many gardeners install fences and brick walls around their estates and gardens to keep people or animals out or in. Some of their barriers look like the Great Wall of China, which was also built to protect against invaders. Many times people build up emotional walls and hedges to protect themselves from heartache and pain; but the walls hey put up not only stop people from reaching in, but those same walls also stop them from reaching out to others. Sometimes people are so busy protecting themselves due to the pain of the past that they miss out on the joy of the future. Walking around surrounded by invisible brick walls is a form of bondage. If you’re not letting anyone into your life, you’re also not reaching out to others. Be free to forgive, to forget, to love, to reach out, and to let others reach in. If you’re going to plant a hedge or build a wall, don’t forget to add the garden gate; it may not prevent entry, but it definitely suggests a boundry.
Here is a list of commonly used shrubs for hedges, according to size.
SMALL MEDIUM LARGE
Azalea Azalea Arborvitae
Boxwood Barberry Azalea
Gardenia Boxwood Euonymus
Holly Butterfly Bush Forsythia
Indian hawthorn Firethorn Holly
Juniper Flowering Quince Juniper
Mugo Pine Forsythia Lilac
Rose Holly Oleander
Spirea Jasmine Privet
Yew Juniper Rhododendron
Rhododendron Viburnum
Yew Yew
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