Evergreen Trees & Plants

Privacy that disappears every winter is not really privacy. Evergreen trees and plants hold their foliage through all four seasons, which is why they do the heavy lifting in Australian gardens: screening neighbours, blocking wind, shading west facing windows and giving the garden its permanent bones.

When choosing evergreens for structural jobs, match the plant's mature height to the sightline you need to block, not to the fence. Screening a two storey neighbour usually calls for varieties reaching 4m to 6m, while most boundary screens between single storey homes only need 2.5m to 3m. Check width just as carefully; a screen listed at 2m wide planted 1m from a path will eventually need constant cutting back. For shade, an evergreen canopy tree on the western side of the house works year round, whereas the same position sometimes suits a deciduous tree better if you want winter sun into living areas, so decide which job matters more before you buy.

Growth rate is the trade off to weigh. Fast evergreen screens deliver privacy in two to three years but ask for trimming twice a year to stay dense; slower varieties take longer to close the gap yet hold a tidy shape with a single annual prune. In frost prone inland areas, look for hardiness notes and plant in spring so young trees face their first winter well established, while coastal and subtropical gardeners can plant through most of the year.

For the softer layer beneath your trees, the companion evergreen plants collection covers shrubs, hedges and groundcovers that keep the lower storey equally green. Broad leafed evergreen magnolias are among the most requested feature trees in this range, and our magnolia care guide walks through positioning and feeding, while the pittosporum care guide covers one of Australia's most reliable evergreen screeners. Planning a boundary planting? The hedge calculator tells you exactly how many plants your fence line needs.