Newsletter Articles
SoCal Options for Green Walls, Hedgerows, and Privacy Plants
Written by Kelsey W.
Sometimes it feels like even the quietest city streets in Los Angeles are always a little busy, which means keeping your yard private and inviting can feel quite difficult, particularly when you’re dealing with a small yard or a very cozy outdoor space.
Creating a green wall or privacy hedge is an excellent option, especially when you’re interested in fencing in the front of your yard but you’re trying to avoid an actual fence. You can even install green walls and privacy plants when your primary outdoor space is a balcony or patio.
Southern California is known for its mild year-round weather, which makes creating a green wall an ideal option because the wall should stay green all year, ensuring your privacy remains intact even in the winter when temperatures aren’t so beachy.
Let’s take a look at some popular options for green walls and privacy hedges in Southern California, as well as how you might go about choosing a particular plant that will work with your home’s size, location, and aesthetic.
Considerations of Height, Width, and Maintenance
One of the most important factors in choosing a privacy hedge or green wall plant is how it looks, but before you choose a plant based on its appearance, it’s important to think about the needs of your home and how the privacy plants will fit into the overall scheme of things.
For example, you might be thinking about getting a shrub that has the capability to grow to a towering height of 40 feet, like the cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) because you have a two-story house and want to make sure no one can see into those second-story windows.
However, shrubs that grow to forty feet tall do require some specialized maintenance, and they may start to interfere with the view from your home. Even if you don’t have an expansive view of the mountains or the ocean, do you want a line of tall hedges blocking your entire view? Maybe you should opt for the compact cherry laurel instead, which grows to a maximum height of 12 feet.
As you explore your different options for hedges, just keep in mind the maximum height of those plants and the possible maintenance that the bushes will require over time. Keeping a neat hedgerow or privacy wall will require a little extra effort versus a set-it-and-forget-it yard of xeriscaping and mature cactuses.
Some plants will drop leaves every year, even though they won’t ever become bare and drop all their leaves. Other shrubs may grow berries that will drop to the ground or require some raking or sweeping on occasion. You may want to choose a green wall that aligns with your level of interest in daily gardening activities.
Green Wall Options for Low Maintenance Homeowners
Just about any green wall you install will require at least some maintenance and occasional attention, but some plants will require much less labor-intensive care than others. So, if you’re averse to dropped leaves, fallen flowers, and other seasonal gifts from your hedges, one of the best options is the Italian cypress.
This plant isn’t native to Southern California, but they don’t mind a drought and are well-adapted to the SoCal climate. The Italian cypress is a tree and can grow to a towering height of 60 feet, so it’s usually best used on larger properties or where you have a lot of space and need a big green wall.
Also known as Mediterranean cypress, you can even put these attractive trees in containers should you have a balcony or a patio where you want a green wall. As long as you keep them well hydrated while they’re young, they’ll only need occasional watering when they’re a few years old.
If you don’t need a huge tree but something shorter and more along the lines of a traditional hedgerow, the boxwood shrub is an ideal candidate. These are very slow-growing bushes, and their thick little leaves offer a wonderful green barrier that’s not too tall.
Boxwoods do like a lot of water at the start of their lives in your yard, but after a few years, you only have to water them once every few weeks. A drip line is a great addition to a row of boxwoods, and they grow so slowly that you won’t need to really prune them but once a year in the spring.
Is a Bamboo Green Wall a Recipe for Disaster?
You may have read that using bamboo as a green wall isn’t always a good idea because it can spread like wildfire and end up growing where you don’t want it to appear. However, not all bamboo is the same, and you can definitely choose a type of bamboo that won’t overrun your yard.
Bamboo is generally classified as “running” or “clumping,” and they basically mean exactly what you think. The running sort will try to spread far and wide across your lawn, but the clumping sort will just hang out and grow more stalks in a nice little grouping.
If you’re in pursuit of a tropical feel or Southeast Asian look for your yard, Green Goddess bamboo is a great clumping option that is a great option for a green wall, especially if you only have a small space, like a small, enclosed backyard that’s surrounded by cinderblock or a fence.
You can even keep these bamboo plants in a container, which means you don’t even have to have a yard to get your bamboo green wall. Simply place your planter along the edge of your balcony or patio, and the bamboo will create a beautiful, tropical privacy screen.
Another option for a bamboo plant that won’t spread is Alphonse Carr bamboo, which is a little more colorful than Green Goddess bamboo. Bear in mind that bamboo is a swift grower, but you should normally only prune it once a year when it’s not actively growing new shoots in the spring and summer.
Using the Eugenia Shrub for a Swift & Easy Green Wall
While bamboo requires a little more attention than other green walls, and boxwoods take quite a long time to grow, the Eugenia shrub is the answer when you want a green wall quickly and without a lot of fuss. They can grow up to 20 feet tall, but their maximum height isn’t why they’re so convenient.
Where Eugenia shines is in how fast it grows and with how little effort you have to put into getting it to grow. The shrub grows wonderfully in full sun, which is a boon to any homeowner in Southern California who needs a green wall where there isn’t any shade during the day.
The plant can grow an impressive four feet every year when you fertilize and water it as it becomes established in your yard. The plant is native to South America, but it does particularly well in Southern California, thriving in almost any soil conditions, from sand to clay or acidic to alkaline.
Really, the only thing you need to watch out for is making sure they don’t sit in any standing water, so you may need to keep an eye on the ground around the shrubs after you put them in the ground to make sure the plants aren’t getting soggy.
Also, remember that the shrubs can grow up to 20 feet tall if you don’t pay attention to them and just let them do their own thing for a while, so you will want to take your hedge trimmers to them if you want them to remain manageable.
Visit Green Thumb Nursery for Green Wall Inspiration
Do you want to create a cozy and private environment for your home, but you’re not interested in a giant fence or thick wall of cinderblocks? You have many green options, from flowing bamboo to bustling little hedges. Let the growing experts at Southern California’s Green Thumb Nursery help you create a beautiful green wall for your home today. We can help you privatize your space whether you need a towering row of trees or a little row of container plants.
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