Seclusion, Privacy and Living Green
By Ken Lain, The Garden Guy

This week Joanne of Prescott emailed this question: "I receive your 'Personal Gardener Newsletter' each week and it's great. You haven't covered privacy screens though. Can you mention your favorite plants that provide the best screening for my new hot tub?

Dear Joanne, the personal shoppers at the garden center spend more time with clients on this one topic than any other landscape objective. This is more popular than ever animal proof plants or container garden combos. Let's cover the very basics first though.
Rows of evergreen plants are first to come to mind, but don't limit yourself. Evergreens are thick year round, but much slower growing. Deciduous plants are those that loose their leaves for winter, but grow much faster and provide great screening every season buy winter. Lets face it, most of us are not enjoying the back patio, pool or deck in winter. This would be a great place to plant tall evergreens in with deciduous plants for a fast, thick screen.

Second, you should ignore the spacing requirements for hedges and screens. When the tag on the plant says it grows 10' wide, that will be your widest spacing. The branch structure should overlap each other at least six feet off the ground. I recommend spacing plants 25% closer than their mature size. This insures a quick screen that grows thick and full.

I train our entire staff to screen for immediate privacy. To stretch a clients landscape budget I recommend putting money into some large specimen plants and place them directly in front of areas that need instant privacy. Cut the money back on the peripheral plants and use smaller sizes. This design idea provides instant privacy from a neighbors deck or windows and the other plants will fill in for total coverage in a few seasons. A great idea to stretch the landscape budget when money needs to go farther.

When I train new staff these are the main three points before moving onto the best plant choice. There are four plants that work best for hardy screens that are fast growing and so thick even animals won't try to go through them.

Pyracantha is the old fashioned favorite. This plant has lost favorer over the years because of the thorny nature of this 12' shrub, but it has everything, beautiful spring blooms, robust green leaves of summer, orange fall berries and winter evergreen. The birds love it and the plants needs moderate to low water use. It can be trained into a formal hedge or let go to provide a more natural privacy look.
Another plants that is as natural as an Arizona sunset is the cypress. Either cypress naturalize well in local landscapes; it all comes down to your color choice. Arizona cypress grows 18'x12' wide and has a classic blue that blends right in. Leyland cypress is just as hardy, but has a more formal look and feel. Growing the same size as her Arizona cousin only with flare. The needles have a fan or flared appearance that is soft and in rich emerald shades of green.

For a hedge that stands out with brilliant red growth in spring and an impenetrable wall of green the rest of the year you should consider the red tipped photinia. Glossy leaves reduce moisture loss from the plant and makes this a moderate water user that is still fast growing. This years summer crop have pushed new growth and appear super-sized right now. You can get a lot of plant of the money.

The last plant success story that supersedes all others is the red cluster berry cotoneaster. I have personally screened propane tanks with this tall hedge and within a season a huge 500 gallon tank was gone. This evergreen shrub grows 10-15 feet tall and half as wide. Bouquets of white flowers form in the spring that eventually form clusters of red berries through winter, thus its name. A five gallon size cotoneaster planted now can easily grown to six feet tall by this time next year. Providing the plant is happy with its new home and owners.

I would like to know your thoughts, concerns, questions, or topic suggestions for this column. You may submit them to Watters Garden Center, 1815 Irons Springs Road, Prescott, AZ 86305, or by logging onto my web site at wattersonline.com. You’ll find the “ask a question” link on the left of your screen. Whether you choose electronic or snail mail, I look forward to those comments from your desk top to mine.

Until next week, I’ll see you in the garden center.

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