So you want more privacy in your yard. I get it. Nobody wants to feel like they are on display while drinking their morning coffee or hosting a barbecue. The best way to fix this is by planting evergreen shrubs. When you use evergreen shrubs, you get a natural wall that stays green all year long. And unlike a wooden fence, it actually looks good.
Fences are expensive to build and they break down over time. Wood rots, and vinyl gets brittle in the cold. But living walls just get better, thicker, and taller every single year. That is why so many people look for fast-growing evergreen shrubs for privacy. They do the job quickly, they block wind, they reduce noise from the street, and they add real value to your home.
Here is what I found when looking at the best options for your yard, and how you can get started right now.
Why Choose Evergreen Shrubs for Privacy?
You have a lot of options for creating boundaries in your yard. But plants offer things that hard materials just can’t match.
The Problem with Fences
A good wooden fence easily costs thousands of dollars. Then you have to stain it, repair the boards when they warp, and replace the posts when they rot in the dirt. Many local rules also limit how high you can build a fence. Usually, you are capped at six feet. But plants don’t follow those rules. You can grow a green wall that is 15 feet tall to block out a neighbor’s second-story window.
Year-Round Greenery Matters
Deciduous bushes lose their leaves in the winter. That means for half the year, your privacy screen is just a bunch of bare sticks. That doesn’t help much if your neighbor’s window looks right into your living room in January. You need plants that keep their leaves or needles in December just as well as they do in July. That is exactly what evergreen shrubs do.
What to Know Before You Plant
Before you head to the garden center or order online, you need a plan. You can’t just buy the first plant you see and hope it lives. Here is what you need to check first.
Checking Your USDA Hardiness Zone
This is step one. Your hardiness zone tells you how cold your winters get. If you live in a cold place like Ohio and buy a plant meant for Florida, it will die the first time it snows. Always check the tag on your evergreen shrubs to make sure they match your local zone.
Sunlight Needs
Look at the exact spot where you want to plant. Does it get full, baking sun all day? Or is it shaded by a big oak tree or the side of your house? Some evergreen shrubs need direct sunlight to grow thick and full. If you put them in the shade, they will look thin and you will still see right through them. Other plants will burn in direct sun and actually prefer the shade.
Soil and Drainage
You also need to know if your soil stays wet or dries out fast. Dig a hole and fill it with water. If the water sits there for hours, you have heavy clay that doesn’t drain well. You will need plants that can handle wet feet, or you will need to fix your soil. Most plants hate sitting in muddy water.
Top 7 Fast-Growing Evergreen Shrubs
Here is a list of the best options if you want a tall screen quickly. I picked these based on how fast they grow and how easy they are to find.
1. Green Giant Arborvitae (The Big One)
If you have a lot of space and want a massive green wall, this is it. The Green Giant is exactly what it sounds like. It grows huge and it grows fast.
Growth Rate and Size
These can grow up to 3 feet in a single year. That is crazy fast for a tree. They can eventually reach 40 feet tall and 15 feet wide. So, make sure you don’t plant them under power lines or right up against your house.
Maintenance Needs
They are pretty tough. Once they are established in the ground, you don’t need to water them constantly. And they naturally grow in a pyramid shape, so you rarely have to trim them.
2. Leyland Cypress (The Classic Screen)
You have probably seen these everywhere. They are one of the most popular evergreen shrubs for privacy because they grow faster than almost anything else on the market.
Pros and Cons
The best part is the speed. They shoot up fast—sometimes 4 feet a year—and create a very dense wall. But here is the problem. They have shallow roots and can blow over in bad wind storms. They are also prone to certain diseases if they get too crowded and don’t get enough air flow. Give them some space to breathe.
3. Emerald Green Arborvitae (For Small Spaces)
Not everyone has a massive backyard. If you live on a tight suburban lot, the Green Giant will take over your whole yard. The Emerald Green is a much better choice here.
Spacing Tips
These only get about 3 to 4 feet wide. They grow straight up. To make a solid wall, you need to plant them about 2.5 to 3 feet apart. They grow slower than the others—maybe a foot a year—but they fit perfectly in tight spaces and along narrow driveways.
4. Cherry Laurel (The Broadleaf Option)
Most people think of pine needles when they hear about evergreen shrubs. But you don’t have to use conifers. The Cherry Laurel has wide, glossy green leaves.
Visual Appeal and Texture
This bush looks completely different from an arborvitae. It feels more like a traditional garden plant. It even gets small white flowers in the spring. It grows fast and wide, making it a great choice if you want to block a bad view quickly but want a softer look.
5. Wax Myrtle (The Tough Native)
If you live in the southern part of the US, this is a great native option. It handles poor soil, heat, and even salt spray, making it good for coastal areas.
Pest and Deer Resistance
Here’s the thing. Deer love to eat many types of plants. If you have a deer problem, they will destroy a regular arborvitae over the winter. But they usually leave Wax Myrtles alone. The leaves have a strong scent that deer just don’t like.
6. Spartan Juniper (The Hardy Column)
If you have terrible, dry soil and blistering heat, look at junipers. The Spartan Juniper grows in a tight, dark green column.
Drought Tolerance
Once this plant has been in the ground for a year, it barely needs any extra water. It is incredibly tough. It grows about 15 inches a year and stops around 15 feet tall. It is perfect for hot climates where other plants dry up and die.
7. Nellie R. Stevens Holly (The Prickly Defender)
Sometimes you want privacy, but you also want security. Nobody wants to push their way through a holly bush.
Berries and Birds
This holly grows fast and gets very thick. The leaves have points on them that keep animals and people away. Plus, it produces bright red berries in the winter. This looks great against the dark green leaves and brings a lot of birds to your yard when it gets cold.
Common Mistakes When Planting Hedges
People waste a lot of money buying plants and then accidentally killing them. Here are the things you should avoid doing.
Planting Too Close Together
When you buy small plants in pots, they look tiny. It is really tempting to plant them one foot apart so they look like a solid wall right away. Don’t do this. When they grow, their roots will fight for water and nutrients. The lower branches will die from lack of sunlight. Trust the spacing instructions on the plant tag.
Forgetting About Mature Height
If you plant a shrub under a power line that wants to grow 40 feet tall, you have a problem. Eventually, the power company will come and chop the top half of your plant off, and it will look terrible. Always plan for the size the plant will be in ten years, not the size it is today.
How to Plant Your Privacy Hedge
Buying your evergreen shrubs is just the start. You have to put them in the ground correctly if you want them to live and grow fast.
Digging the Right Hole
Don’t just dig a deep, narrow hole. That is a bad idea. The hole should be twice as wide as the root ball, but exactly the same depth. If you plant the shrub too deep and bury the trunk in dirt, the trunk will rot and the plant will die. The top of the root ball should be exactly level with the ground.
Amending the Soil
If you have very bad dirt, you might want to mix in some compost. But don’t just fill the hole with rich potting soil. If you do that, the roots will stay in that soft soil and never push out into the surrounding dirt. Mix a little compost with your native dirt so the plant gets used to its permanent home.
Watering Newly Planted Shrubs
This is where most people mess up. A new plant needs a lot of water to grow roots. For the first few months, you need to water them deeply at least once or twice a week. Don’t just spray the leaves with a hose for five minutes. Put the hose at the base of the plant, turn it on low, and let it soak the ground for twenty minutes so the water gets down deep to the roots.
Caring for Your Evergreen Shrubs
You want your plants to stay healthy for years. That takes a little bit of work, but not much. Once they are established, they mostly take care of themselves.
Pruning Basics
Some evergreen shrubs need haircuts. If you want a formal, boxy hedge, you will need to trim them with hedge clippers once or twice a year. If you want a natural look, just use hand pruners to cut off the dead or broken branches.
One major rule: Never cut a conifer (like an arborvitae or juniper) back to bare wood. If you cut past the green needles into the brown branches, it will not grow back. You will just have a bald spot on your plant forever.
Mulching the Roots
Put a two-inch layer of wood mulch around the base of your plants. This does two things. First, it stops weeds from growing and stealing water from your shrubs. Second, it keeps the sun from baking the dirt and drying out the roots in the summer. Just make sure the mulch isn’t touching the actual trunk of the plant, or it can cause rot.
Winter Protection
Heavy snow and ice can ruin your plants. The weight bends the branches outward and sometimes snaps them completely. If you live somewhere with heavy snowfall, you might need to tie the branches together in the late fall. Just wrap some twine loosely around the middle of the bush to keep it from breaking apart under the weight of the snow.
Final Thoughts on Your New Yard
Getting true privacy doesn’t have to mean putting up an ugly wall or spending thousands on a contractor. Evergreen shrubs do the job perfectly while making your yard look much better.
It takes a little bit of patience. Even the fastest growing plants take a few years to fill in completely. But if you pick the right plant for your specific space, plant it correctly, and make sure it gets enough water during that first year, you will be successful. Do that, and you will have a quiet, private, green yard for a very long time.
