Hedges and trees: 8 ideas for practical planting

Aside from looking beautiful, planting trees and hedges smartly yields practical benefits. Just keep these eight ideas in mind.

• Planting a dense, wide evergreen hedge on a mound of soil, or berm, can help block noise if a side of your yard borders a busy street.

Some open hedges may also create their own "white noise" as wind passes through the branches and rustles the leaves.

You can minimize the damaging effects of wind by installing a barrier of hardy trees or shrubs.

• Site the windbreak so that prevailing winds hit it broadside.The distance between the windbreak and the area to be protected should be 10 times the plants' height.
• For example, place a 1.5-metre hedge 15 metres away.
• Set plants in staggered rows; evergreens, such as fir, pine and spruce, or dense deciduous plants, such as viburnum, abelia and forsythia, are good choices.

• Be adventurous in designing your living wall by using different plants or species that are compatible both aesthetically and culturally.

The resulting "tapestry hedge" will add visual interest and let you use more of your favourite plants to provide blooms or attract wildlife.

Ornamental grasses combined with evergreen and deciduous shrubs create a beautiful, all-season tapestry hedge.

• Prune deciduous hedges just after they've flowered or when dormant.
• Prune evergreen hedges in spring, early summer or fall.

In cold climates, all hedges need to be pruned early enough so that any new growth will have time to harden off to prevent winter injury.

An effective tall hedge takes a long time to establish, and regular pruning is necessary to create dense growth.

• Don't allow plants to grow tall and lanky at the expense of density; you'll end up with a thin and useless hedge.
• Limit the height of an evergreen hedge to no more than two metres, or you'll need a ladder to prune it.

If you want more height, use trees instead.

Conifers create handsome, dense hedges.

• Shape hemlocks, arborvitae and yews by clipping the young sprouts, leaving two to five centimetres of new growth.
• Or you can prune them lightly for a more natural look.
• Pines can also be hedged; prune them by removing one-half to two-thirds of candle growth (new shoots with growth buds) with pruners in late spring or early summer.

Most conifers perform best as a hedge when maintained in a roughly pyramidal shape, with the base wider than the top. Prune the plants slowly and carefully, stepping back every now and then to gauge your progress.

• Separate your vegetable garden from the yard and protect it from animals by growing a hedge of thorny fruits, such as blackberries.
• Support them on a trellis around the perimeter.

For extra colour, interplant the brambles with morning glories, scarlet runner beans, sunflowers or other climbing vines and tall annuals.

Use a thorny hedge as a barrier against dogs, opossums and other uninvited visitors.

• Among the most unwelcoming plants are barberry, pyracantha, hawthorn, shrub roses, holly and hardy orange.
• When planted beneath windows, thorny plants can discourage burglars, too.

Property boundaries often include utility right-of-ways, where pipes or lines may be buried. Before digging, check your property map or call local utilities if you need help locating underground lines.

Using these eight ideas you can design a garden with trees and hedges that is both practical and aesthetically pleasing.