Long before the advent of pressure-treated lumber, vinyl and metal, landowners constructed fences from various plants, trees and shrubs. In Britain, hedge building has a strong and famous heritage. Some hedges – usually anchored by hawthorns planted next to each other – are centuries old and organizations like the English Hedgerow Trust exist solely to protect them.
But plant fences don’t have to be a thing of the past. In modern landscaping, there are many reasons to consider your own hedge. Depending on the plants you choose, a green fence can serve a variety of purposes, says Steven Biggs, a Toronto-based horticulturist, author and host of the “Food Garden Life” podcast. “A hedge can create a boundary on a property or a private fence. It can serve as a windbreak, provide shade or wildlife habitat.
In the warmer climates of Africa and the Caribbean, it is common to see walls, both functional and decorative, made of cacti. In the United States, settlers often created hedges with the Osage orange tree, a hardy native tree with a tangle of thorny branches and thorns.
“I’ve seen some really amazing photos where people were planting Osage orange trees in a hedge, and they were so tangled and tough you could walk on them,” said Kip McConnell, director of Plant Development Services Inc., a Plant breeding company based in Alabama. “It’s such a resilient plant. It has very long green thorns on it, so it was definitely a barrier.
In fact, Osage orange made such an effective fence that some suggest it was what inspired the invention of barbed wire in the late 1800s, which quickly replaced trees on farms across the country.
Unlike most vinyl, wood or metal fences, a hedge can serve multiple purposes at once. And aesthetically speaking, it can be much more interesting than flat slats. You can incorporate flowering trees, shrubs with foliage that changes color throughout the year, or plants with fragrant flowers, says McConnell.
“It’s easy to imagine a simple evergreen hedge,” he says. “But there are a lot of conifers that are flowering. We have camellias in our collection that are incredible. They are evergreen but have very colorful flowers beginning in early fall. Some hollies have beautifully colored variegated foliage. We also recommend gardenias, which provide lovely, fragrant blooms in summer and make a lovely evergreen shrub the rest of the year. All this forms a beautiful hedge of medium to low height.
The other benefit of hedging with evergreens, McConnell adds, is how little work they require once planted. “You may not want something that will require you to do constant pruning,” he says. “Conifers tend to be useful plants and fairly easy to care for.”
A boon for wildlife
In addition to its aesthetic value, a plant fence can make a big difference to the broader ecology of your yard. It provides a much-needed place for wildlife to hide, nest, hunt and feed, meaning its installation could promote biodiversity.
“Birds need areas where they can enter, feed and hide from predators,” says McConnell. A dense hedge provides safe nesting habitat for birds and small mammals, not to mention the pollinators and beneficial insects they feed on. “It’s one of those benefits you don’t get when you just put up a regular fence.”
When you move away from evergreens, Biggs says, a green fence can have even more benefits. Many food plants lend themselves well to hedging, he says, and the fruits and nuts they produce can feed both animals and humans.
“Some more well-known things – like hazelnuts, raspberries, elderberries, grapevines, crabapples and pecans – intermingle really well to make an edible hedge,” says Biggs. “But some more common landscape plants that people already have are also edible. Roses, for example, have edible petals and rose hips can be used to make tea or jelly. Other common hedge shrubs, including juniper and barberry, he adds, have edible berries.
Even blueberries can be a great choice for a fence. “Some of the older blueberry varieties might grow tall and lanky,” says McConnell, “but there are newer varieties that remain very compact and neat and have ornamental foliage in addition to tasty fruit.”
If you’re looking for a lower-to-the-ground option, McConnell also recommends considering a herbal hedge. English lavender is a perennial plant that retains its fragrant foliage all year round in many growing areas and flowers every spring. Or try rosemary. “It grows like a quintessential little hedge, and just brushing against it fills the whole garden with fragrance,” he says.
There aren’t many rules for living fences, especially when using edible plants.
“In a vegetable garden, I love edible hedges where different things are ready at different times,” says Biggs. “In my own garden I have my row of currant and gooseberry bushes, and I kept looking at it and thinking, ‘I’d like to punctuate that with plum trees.’ And then I thought, “How about some strawberries at the base?” You can achieve this with the idea of grazing along the hedge a little this week, a little next week, for most of the year.
A structure that endures
If you’re ready to plant a plant fence, a landscape professional or someone at your local nursery can help you choose the best plants for your garden and desired effect. Consider whether you want something that grows tall and thick, a waist-high hedge, or something in between, and whether things like fruit, scent, or color are priorities. It can also be helpful to start with more than one plant variety, says Biggs.
“You always have to expect that some things will work better than others over time,” he says. “If you plant 10 different things, it’s fair to assume that it will diminish in a few years as some things disappear; then you can stick to what does best.
One of the few downsides to a living fence is that it almost certainly won’t go up in a day, or even a year. “It’s hard to get immediate gratification with a project like this,” McConnell says. “I mean, if you have a lot of money, maybe you can buy things that are already mature, but more than likely you’ll have to wait for it to grow.”
But once a hedge is established, it can last for generations. In Cambridgeshire, England, a row of intertwined hawthorns called Judith’s Hedge is widely considered the oldest in the country, having marked the boundary of a parish there since the 11th century. It would be difficult for a homeowner to find a modern fencing material that could last 900 years, McConnell says.
“Seeing him grow is part of the joy,” he adds. “You get a lot of satisfaction watching these plants start small and mature into a sturdy fence that could live a very long time.”
Kate Morgan is a freelance writer in Richland, Pennsylvania.
