Evergreen Landscaping for Privacy and Beauty
What it is:
Evergreen landscaping design concepts create living privacy screens. Using conifers, heaths, hollies, and other evergreen shrubs and trees ensures greenery throughout the year.
Do you feel like your yard is a private oasis in summer, but a barren wasteland with the privacy of a fish bowl in the winter? Yeah, we’ve been there too. Your functional landscape is lacking. You need more evergreen landscaping.
Why it matters:
Provides year-round beauty
Acts as a natural windbreak and privacy screen
Provides wildlife winter thermal cover and protection from predation
Adds significant appeal and value to some properties
How we do it:
We design strategically placed plant groupings that maximize coverage while keeping maintenance low and matching site conditions.
Derivatives, styles, and similar concepts. We point these out to help relate to terms that can be unclear, ambiguous, and overlapping in our field.
Privacy landscaping, screening landscaping, natural landscaping, wildlife habitat landscaping, etc.
Truth or myth: Evergreen landscaping blocks out road noise.
Answer: Mixed. Studies we’ve seen have shown minimal objective improvement in measureable decibel levels. However, from firsthand experience, we do believe that fairly extensive conifer plantings can at least dull the noise. Now, the important part to keep in mind here is that many of these plantings need to grow 30+ years before they have an impact.
Natives vs. Invasives - Privacy Screening
When it comes to evergreens, fortunately we don’t have too many terrible options (the same can’t be said of deciduous hedges, which are almost all invasives).
Let’s break it down into some categories.
Best Native Evergreen Screens
These species provide year-round coverage while supporting local ecosystems:
Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) – Tough, drought-resistant, deer resistant, and excellent for birds and wildlife.
American Holly (Ilex opaca) – Offers dense foliage, glossy leaves, and bright red berries for winter interest.
Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus) – One of the fastest-growing native evergreens, providing a soft, natural-looking screen. Tolerates a variety of soils but prefers well-drained areas.
White Spruce (Picea glauca) – Fast-growing and cold-hardy, providing a thick barrier.
Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) – A softer, natural privacy screen that thrives in shade (but usually must be managed for woolly adelgid issues).
Great Rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum) – Broadleaf evergreen with stunning flowers and dense, year-round foliage. Grows well in shady, moist conditions.
Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) – A dense, slow-growing native shrub with beautiful flowers, great for shaded privacy screens.
Pitch Pine (Pinus rigida) – A rugged, fire-adapted survivor of a pine that tolerates poor soils, sandy or rocky conditions, and even regrows from damage. It’s a great option for privacy in harsher sites where other trees may struggle. We love the character of the pitch pine and would advocate for it to be our national tree if we didn’t also love oaks so much.
Acceptable Non-Native Options
While not invasive, these evergreens aren’t strictly native but still perform well without harming local biodiversity:
Arborvitae (Thuja standishii × plicata) – A hybrid of many trade names that grows quickly. What it lacks in character it makes up in utilitarian function. Not many pest issues, solid option overall, if a little vanilla. Sometimes claimed to be resistant to deer browsing. I can assure you, it’s very much not. Deer seem to prefer it.
Norway Spruce (Picea abies) – A popular fast-growing choice that’s widely used for windbreaks.
Concolor Fir (Abies concolor) – Soft-needled and tolerant of poor soils.
Other pine, spruce, and fir species - there are many. Some have significant disease concerns.
Avoid at all costs: Bamboo. Just. don’t.