Fast Growing Hedges: Top Picks
Fast growing hedges are the unsung heroes of the garden, transforming landscapes with swift, verdant elegance and promise.
These vibrant green barriers not only provide essential privacy and noise reduction but also breathe life into underdeveloped spaces - an optimal choice for those eager to reinvent their surroundings.
Benefits of Fast Growing Hedges
Fast growing hedges offer transformative garden solutions.
Their most significant benefit is their rapid growth. Within a short span, these hedges can turn any bare space into a lush, private oasis of greenery, adding an enchanting aura of nature to your home. Moreover, they can act as a buffer, softening the harshness of urban noise and pollution.
Immediate results bring immense satisfaction.
With successful implementation, you can alleviate privacy issues - or even those nagging noise problems - with fast growing hedges in no time at all, fostering harmonious living conditions.
These verdant screens promote environmental advantages by enhancing biodiversity, promoting habitats for local wildlife, and improving air quality. They become an integral component of your garden, advancing both ecological footprint and aesthetic appeal. In doing so, you are investing in a flourishing future, a choice that resonates with both practicality and vision.
Choosing the Right Hedge for Your Garden
Choosing the perfect hedge requires careful consideration.
When selecting fast growing hedges, you must weigh your garden's specific needs. Some hedges thrive in sunny spots, while others excel in shaded areas, making it essential to match plant characteristics to your plot’s environment. Additionally, consider how tall and wide you envision the hedge growing, ensuring it complements the overall landscape design.
Climate compatibility is highly impactful.
Ensure the hedge you select is well-suited for your local climate and soil conditions to maximise its growth potential. This ensures that your greenery flourishes, transforming your outdoor space into a thriving, vibrant haven.
Explore a variety of species known for their robustness and speedy growth, such as the regal Lilly Pilly or the versatile Bamboo, which can be tailored to diverse garden settings. By doing so, you’ll not only enhance your garden’s functionality but also enrich its beauty, as these hedges become a testament to your garden’s potential to evolve and grow splendidly.
Top Hedge Varieties
When considering fast growing hedges, several exceptional choices stand out, including Boxwood, which offers a classic appeal and forms a dense, elegant barrier. Other notable options include the photogenic Camellia, with its year-round splendour, and the sun-loving, drought-tolerant Grevillea.
These selected varieties not only provide quick growth but also adapt beautifully to various gardening styles and regional landscapes, enhancing both aesthetics and functionality.
Leylandii
Leylandii offers remarkable growth potential, a favourite for Australian gardens craving rapid privacy. Celebrated for its dense foliage, it quickly establishes as a magnificent green barrier against prying eyes.
In addition to its height and privacy, Leylandii is drought-resistant, making it a versatile asset in Australian gardens. Despite its fast growth, it requires regular trimming to maintain a manicured appearance.
Leylandii's remarkable growth rate enhances garden privacy and beauty with its dense foliage reaching impressive heights.
Proper care advice: To prevent dominance over other plants, ensure regular trimming and avoid planting near structures. This will maximise its aesthetic value and maintain a vibrant, thriving garden landscape.
Cherry Laurel
Cherry Laurel is a true garden delight.
Renowned for its rapid development, this evergreen gem creates a powerful, verdant visual barrier effortlessly. The brilliant, glossy leaves of Cherry Laurel form a tight-knit tapestry of greenery, perfect for shielding private spaces from noisy neighbours. Paired with delightful white flowers, it ensures your boundary is as beautiful as it is functional.
Its leaves shine year-round.
Cherry Laurel thrives in Australia’s diverse climates - from humid zones to more temperate regions, its adaptability shines through. Moreover, resistant to pollution, it is an ideal urban companion, adding nature’s breath to cityscapes.
These resilient hedges offer a remarkable horticultural triumph, providing gardeners with the assurance and confidence to watch their spaces transform dynamically. Cherry Laurel’s spirited performance makes it a sterling choice, meeting modern landscaping needs while promoting sustainability and natural beauty in equal measure.
Privet
Privet is celebrated for its vigorous growth and dense foliage, making it an exceptional choice for fast growing hedges.
- Growth Rate: Known for its rapid expansion, often reaching up to a metre annually.
- Versatility: Adaptable to various soil types and tolerant of pollution, ideal for urban settings.
- Maintenance: Requires regular trimming but rewards with a lush, compact appearance.
- Aesthetic Appeal: Offers vibrant, evergreen leaves with an occasional burst of small white flowers.
With its robust growth capabilities, Privet stands out as a reliable selection for homeowners seeking privacy and lush greenery.
Choosing Privet ensures a beautiful, stylish barrier, fulfilling the dual needs of functionality and elegance.
Bamboo
Bamboo stands as an extraordinary choice for those seeking fast growing hedges, offering a unique blend of elegance and rapid expansion.
Remarkably fast-growing, some bamboo species can achieve astounding heights in short periods.
This distinctive grass provides excellent privacy due to its tall, dense growth, making it a favourite for creating serene, secluded outdoor spaces. Its resilient nature requires minimal intervention, thriving in both full sun and partial shade, thus offering flexibility in planning where to plant your hedge.
Bamboo’s intrinsic beauty and graceful swaying in the breeze add a touch of Zen to any garden. Additionally, bamboo serves as a natural air purifier, absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen noticeably more effectively than some other plants. When choosing bamboo, consider opting for "clumping" varieties to prevent invasive spreading and maintain a sustainable, easily-contained hedge. If you need height faster than a shrub hedge can deliver, our guide to the best fast-growing screening trees for privacy covers the tree-sized alternatives and the wider planting distances they need.
Planting Fast Growing Hedges
Imagine creating a living boundary that not only defines your space but also breathes life into your garden.
In 2016, horticultural experts, in a landmark gardening conference, presented their findings from over six years of research, demonstrating how fast growing hedges could transform landscapes, making spaces more private and aesthetically pleasing.
Today, it's not just about speed; each gardener's appreciation of nature's artistry in erecting a verdant partition of lush leaves demonstrates that these green masterpieces can blossom beyond mere aesthetics. The strategic planting of fast growing hedges offers privacy while enhancing biodiversity.
Choose the location wisely, ensuring the plants receive enough sunlight – between 3 to 6 hours is ideal – while providing protection from strong winds, and remember, patience paired with care yields magnificent results.
Embrace the journey and watch your chosen fast growing hedges transform into thriving, spectacular hedges that stand tall.
Care and Maintenance Tips
Elevate your garden's appeal with fast growing hedges, knowing that these robust beauties need attention to thrive.
Consistent watering is essential for a prosperous hedge, especially during the initial growth phase. Ensure the soil remains moist without becoming waterlogged, allowing the roots to establish firmly. This nurturing foundation will empower your hedge to flourish and provides a solid barrier against environmental challenges.
Additionally, regular pruning is an essential aspect of hedge maintenance. By judiciously trimming your hedges, you not only encourage dense growth but also enhance their overall shape and structure, preserving their intended aesthetic value.
Finally, apply fertilisers thoughtfully to support your hedge’s vigour. Opt for a slow-release, balanced fertiliser during the spring to provide sustained nourishment. This measured approach fosters impressive growth and bolsters resilience, ensuring your hedges remain vibrant and healthy, standing as green sentinels of vitality and beauty.
Using Hedges for Privacy
In today’s increasingly interconnected world, the desire for privacy has taken on new significance. And what better way to achieve this than by enlisting fast growing hedges? These green marvels not only add an aesthetic appeal to your property but also create a natural barrier that offers seclusion and tranquillity.
Fast growing hedges are the ideal solution for homeowners seeking a natural privacy screen.
They provide a verdant shield, allowing you to escape the prying eyes of neighbours and passers-by. Due to their rapid growth rate, these hedges quickly become dense and impenetrable.
Such hedges, when strategically placed around the perimeter of your garden, effectively delineate your private retreat (especially beneficial for those with smaller properties) and add significant value.
Moreover, these dense green walls are remarkably versatile, adapting to various architectural styles and landscape designs. This ability ensures that your living space is not only private but also harmoniously integrated into its surroundings.
Indeed, investing in fast growing hedges is not just about securing privacy; it is about enriching your environment with natural beauty. These green giants instil a sense of peace, transforming any space into a sanctuary, while also contributing positively to the ecosystem.
Hedges as Windbreaks
Harness the power of nature’s barriers.
Hedges as windbreaks have a long-standing reputation for their durability. They form a robust defence that shields your landscape from the relentless forces of prevailing winds, which can not only cause structural damage but also lead to soil erosion. Strategically planted, these natural barriers can significantly enhance the microclimate of your garden and create a calm and comfortable environment.
Living barriers transform exposed areas.
Whether you live on a coastal property or an open rural block, the benefits of fast growing hedges as windbreaks are invaluable—allowing you to protect delicate plants and foster a more sheltered outdoor space.
By carefully selecting species known for their sturdy growth and dense foliage, you leverage the natural environment to buffer against harsh winds. These living barricades are particularly relevant as we move into 2023 and beyond, where weather patterns may shift unpredictably. Fast growing species like Lilly Pilly or Photinia not only act as reliable windbreaks but also add aesthetic value to your property, illustrating how the marriage of form and function in nature can be both pragmatic and beautiful.
Attracting Wildlife with Hedges
Hedges invite a world of vibrant fauna.
By choosing specific plant species that entice native wildlife, you can transform your garden into a thriving ecosystem. The dense foliage of fast growing hedges provides essential shelter and breeding grounds for birds and small mammals. Moreover, nectar-rich plants can attract a myriad of pollinators that further enhance the biodiversity of your outdoor sanctuary.
Birds find refuge and nesting sites.
Butterflies and bees, essential to - not only the health of your garden but also the broader ecological balance of our environment - are naturally drawn towards nectar-laden hedges and flowering varieties.
Incorporating hedges into your landscape offers a nurturing habitat, encouraging the harmonious coexistence of flora and fauna, enabling you to contribute positively to ecological conservation in 2023 and beyond. This thoughtful integration supports a balanced ecosystem and transforms your garden into a bustling hub of biodiversity.
Cost-Effective Gardening Solutions with Hedges
Embracing fast growing hedges in your garden fosters a robust green environment, a natural allure, and a potent blend of cost-effectiveness that extends remarkable returns on your investment.
These economically wise choices fill the canvas of your garden beautifully while conserving resources.
Strategically chosen hedges will not only enhance your space aesthetically but also contribute to practical solutions, such as insulation.
With hedges, the benefits extend far beyond aesthetics, offering cost savings on fencing and long-term maintenance.
By investing in hedges that thrive in your local climate, you promote sustained growth, avoid wastage, and harness nature’s unrivaled capacity to provide. This results in a flourishing garden and prudent budgeting.
Ultimately, the wise selection of hedges helps achieve a garden that serves its purpose effectively. Your thoughtful selection will keep yielding lush dividends, marking your space with natural splendour.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Neglecting soil preparation before planting hedges costs you.
Properly tuning your soil pH and structure can dramatically affect growth rates. The initial investment in understanding soil conditions and making necessary amendments will pay off with vibrant, fast growing hedges. Furthermore, overlooking the importance of root space can lead to stunted growth.
Poor placement impacts hedge growth immensely.
Consider the mature size of your hedges and plan accordingly. Planting too close to structures, pathways, or other plants can impede air circulation and light, essential for robust growth.
Watering inconsistencies are often detrimental to hedge health. It's vital to establish a regular watering regime, especially during the early stages of growth, ensuring your investment is well-nourished and prepared to face seasonal challenges. Maintaining consistency in these early stages is key to realising your garden's full potential.
Seasonal Care for Hedges
Celebrate the changing seasons with nurturing care.
Each season offers a unique opportunity to bolster your hedges' resilience. In spring, it's ideal to prune and fertilise, encouraging lush new growth. During the hot summer, mulching retains moisture and suppresses weeds, while autumn's mild weather allows for reshaping and stabilising before winter's cooler embrace.
Winter can be harsh on hedges.
Protect your hedges from frost by using a thick mulch layer. This insulation shields the roots from temperature fluctuations and helps retain moisture during drier months. Likewise, reduced evaporation rates in winter minimise water loss, ensuring that even a reduced watering schedule keeps your hedges thriving.
Prioritise regular inspections for pests and diseases in these transitional periods. By maintaining a vigilant eye, you'll catch and address any issues before they escalate, safeguarding your garden's investment. As you adapt your care routines to each season, your fast growing hedges will flourish, capturing the essence of change and transformation with each passing month.
A shrub shortlist for screening and privacy
Beyond the fastest growers, a handful of shrubs do the screening job so reliably that they turn up in Australian gardens again and again. These are the species worth shortlisting before you commit to a whole boundary, and all of them are available in our hedging plants range.
Syzygium australe 'Resilience'
A native lilly pilly bred specifically for psyllid resistance, which is the single biggest problem with older syzygium hedges. New growth flushes reddish bronze before hardening to glossy green, and fluffy white flowers are followed by edible berries. Its dense habit takes shaping easily and it copes with a wide range of weather. If your boundary needs a native evergreen that will not be disfigured by pests, start here.
Buxus microphylla (Japanese box)
A slow-growing evergreen reaching roughly one metre by 1.5 metres, in leaf all year and flowering in autumn. It is the classic choice for low formal edging, parterres and clipped shapes rather than tall screening, and it rewards two light trims a year with a crisp, dense finish.
Photinia 'Red Robin'
A vigorous large-leafed evergreen grown for the brilliant red flush on new growth, which matures to glossy dark green. It can be trained as a standard to give evergreen screening above a fence line. Photinia dislikes deep shade, where it grows drawn and straggly, and it drops leaves under prolonged dryness, so give it sun and consistent moisture. It tolerates a wide range of soils, including quite alkaline ones, provided there is enough organic matter.
Pittosporum tenuifolium
An evergreen shrub with a bushy, upright habit and small wavy-edged leaves that provide year-round structure. It can reach eight metres if left alone, which makes it flexible: use it as a specimen, a clipped hedge or a tall screen. It is a good choice where you want movement and a lighter texture than a large-leafed hedge gives.
Camellia and westringia for the harder spots
Camellia sasanqua takes a surprising amount of clipping and flowers through autumn, which makes it the pick for a shaded or south-facing boundary. Westringia handles coastal wind, salt and poor soil without complaint and stays naturally rounded with very little work. Between them they cover the two conditions that defeat most hedges.
Maintaining a screening hedge
A screen is only as good as its first two years. Prepare the site by clearing weeds and debris, testing the soil and digging a continuous trench rather than individual holes, so the roots can run along the line. Mix compost through the backfill and set the plants at consistent spacing, allowing for their mature width rather than the size they are on the day of delivery.
Once planted, water deeply and regularly through establishment rather than lightly and often, and mulch the whole strip to keep the root zone cool and weed-free. Feed with an organic or controlled-release fertiliser in early spring. Trim lightly and frequently rather than hard and rarely, and always keep the top of the hedge narrower than the base so light reaches the lower foliage and the hedge stays furnished to the ground. For a step-by-step routine, our guide on how to create a great hedge and keep it looking sharp takes it from trench to first trim.
One practical check before you plant: confirm any local height restrictions and property line setbacks that apply to your street. Councils differ, and a boundary hedge planted too close to the line or allowed to exceed a permitted height can become an expensive problem years later.
Design ideas and low-maintenance options
Hedges do more than block a view. Treated as a design element, they set the rhythm of the whole garden.
Geometric shapes
Clipping a hedge into a deliberate geometry turns an ordinary boundary into a statement. Squared blocks, circular domes and stepped forms all read as intentional, and species with small leaves and dense growth, such as box, conifers or Japanese box, hold sharp lines best. Large-leafed species look ragged when cut into tight shapes, so match the plant to the level of formality you want.
Layered heights
Rather than one wall of green, run hedges of different heights in front of each other. A knee-high clipped edge in front of a waist-high flowering shrub in front of a tall evergreen screen gives depth, hides the bare bases of the taller plants and creates far more habitat for birds and insects. Lavender, viburnum and graduated rows of contrasting evergreens are all reliable in this role.
Flowering and edible hedges
A hedge does not have to be plain green. Bottlebrush and grevillea bring vivid flowers and pull honeyeaters into the garden, while an edible boundary of feijoa, blueberry or bay laurel earns its space twice over. Staggering the flowering periods across two or three species keeps something happening on the boundary in every season.
Low-maintenance choices
If you want the structure without the weekly trim, choose species that are naturally the right size and shape. Westringia, dwarf lilly pilly forms, murraya and box all hold a tidy habit with two trims a year rather than six, and all are drought-tolerant once established. Choosing a plant whose natural mature height matches the height you actually want is the single most effective way to reduce hedge maintenance. Our roundup of alternative hedging plants is a good place to look if the usual suspects do not suit your conditions.
Ready to plant?
We grow hedging stock in advanced sizes so a new boundary reads as a screen from the first season rather than the third. Browse our privacy and screening range to compare species, mature heights and current availability.
