Screens or hedges are commonly used in the city to give privacy, screen neighbors, accentuate driveways or sidewalks, mark boundaries, block sound, provide living fences, or camouflage utilities.  Some areas around town also use larger plants to provide windbreaks.  The selection of plants is open to all varieties that grow in the Pikes Peak region.  Qualities you might wish to consider would be stem, leaf and bloom color, fragrance, ability to attract birds or butterflies, fruit production for people and / or wildlife, xeriscape capability, fall color, winter interest, thorns (creating a barrier to keep intruders out), deciduous or evergreen. 

Selection

Any shrub can be used for a hedge.  It just depends on the desired effect you want.  To establish privacy for the yard or a screen to block a view, plant a tall shrub.  If your neighbors up the hill have a direct view into your yard or house, resort to trees.  Remember the plants only have to get as tall as the view that you wish to block.

Along a driveway or sidewalk, stick with the short or medium shrubs.  Being accosted by a large shrub after a hard day’s work is just a matter of poor planning.  Short and medium sized shrubs also make great boundary markers in the front yard when planted on the property line.  These constitute living fences and are usually just a single row of plants.  Generally taller shrubs are used as living fences towards the back boundaries of a property, most often seen along golf courses or common areas.

Utility boxes are an eyesore, but necessary.  Before doing any work to screen them, however, please check with the utility department.

For a windbreak, use large trees or shrubs and plant in more than one row.  Colorado winds can blow year round so an evergreen windbreak offers a more permanent solution.  The drawback to evergreens is their slow growth.  The slow growing natives (Blue Spruce, Ponderosa, or Pinon Pine) require little or no water once established.  Other evergreens, like the Austrian Pine, will grow faster with more moisture.  To accelerate the function of a windbreak, deciduous trees or shrubs can be alternated with the evergreens or planted in another row of the screen.  After the evergreens become large enough, you can either leave or remove the deciduous plants.

Noise reduction can be accomplished by placing plants close together, using plants with dense growth habits and heavy foliage.  Two or more rows are more effective and this also helps to keep road dust down. 

Trimming and Shaping

Continued trimming or pinching on the top or sides can cause such dense growth on the upper portions that the lower and inside branches become bare.  Occasionally, some internal branches should be removed to allow light through to develop more uniform thickness.  Many plants have features we like yet grow taller than needed.  Trimming can keep them shorter, but after a while they become scraggly.  A hard pruning in the late fall can bring deciduous shrubs back to original fullness in a short amount of time.  Evergreens (junipers, arborvitaes, pines) do not respond favorably to hard pruning.  Rather, choose a variety that conforms to your specifications.  Also be aware that maintenance pruning may eliminate blooms if done at the wrong time of year.  An example would be forsythia and lilac—summer or fall pruning removes next year’s bloom.  Free flowering plants are not as sensitive to pruning times, but there will be a lag after they’ve been cut until they can initiate bud development again. 

Choosing the Right Plants

A wide array of plants is available and there seems to be one for every niche on the landscape.  In fact, the selection can be quite overwhelming and downright intimidating.  The Colorado Nursery and Greenhouse Association (CNGA) publishes a comprehensive guide for plants that will do well in our climate along the Front Range.  This Rocky Mountain Plant Guide, along with its sister publication the Rocky Mountain Perennial Plant Guide, breaks down plants into understandable categories and gives their specific requirements.  Stop by Phelan Gardens to browse through our nursery stock and purchase a copy of these CNGA Guides and while you are there let us answer your hedging questions. 

For any questions you have on this article, or any topic of concern, email us—or better yet, come by and talk to one of our professional staff members.  Remember, Phelan Gardens is open year-round!  

For additional information, check the following link: 

• Hedges