Home » Plants & Animals » Garden Planning » Landscaping with Shrubs: How to Plant Hedges, Screens, and Ground Cover

Landscaping with Shrubs: How to Plant Hedges, Screens, and Ground Cover

© Nathalie Gignac Henderson

Shrubs have many uses. Grouped close together, they provide privacy, conceal imperfections, and fill in bare spots in a garden.

Using Shrubs as Hedges or Screens

Hedges should be thick and full to provide privacy. They require shearing and are difficult to maintain. Some hedges need to be clipped 2 to 4 times a year to maintain a manicured appearance. A hedge gains 1 to 2 inches of growth with every trimming. Deciduous hedges can be revived by cutting back at a few inches of the ground.

Select a shearing tolerant shrub for an hedge. Clipping after late summer is not recommended. Depending on the plant you use, the spacing of individual plants will vary. To trim your hedges in a straight line, stretch a string along the hedge at the desired height, to serve as a guide.

Shrub screens are a lower maintenance alternative. To make a screen, choose shrubs that will attain the desired height and width and have dense foliage, not ones that tend to form large clumps of suckers. If your screen is getting bare at the bottom, cut down the plants to within a few inches of the ground to revitalize it. Screens need no trimming.

Shrubs can keep passersby off your lawn and landscaping. Low shrubs along a walkway can prohibit pedestrians from walking on the grass. For an impassable fence, the use of thorny plants is generally successful, but can be dangerous around children. Consider the pruning, maintaining, and removing of a thorny shrub. Choose your species carefully - they can spread rapidly.

Shrubs in Shady Areas, around Foundations or as Ground Cover

Big trees can create lawn problems by blocking the sunlight to grass and plants below. Planting shade tolerant shrubs adjacent to the trees will help the appearance, as well as protecting the tree trunk from injury. Some shrubs may not need shade, but will adapt to it more easily than other plants.

To mask the foundation of a house or building, you do not have to plant in a solid row - a couple of carefully selected and placed shrubs can be more efficient.

Many shrubs can be used as ground covers, particularly the low, ground hugging varieties. As usual, ground cover shrubs should suit the exposure and water requirements for the zone in which they are planted.

The copyright of the article Landscaping with Shrubs: How to Plant Hedges, Screens, and Ground Cover in Garden Planning is owned by Nathalie Gignac Henderson. Permission to republish Landscaping with Shrubs: How to Plant Hedges, Screens, and Ground Cover in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.