What Is The Best Tree For Privacy?

While trees play an important role in the environment and can protect your home from the elements. They also can play an important role in making sure you have a private refuge and a place to relax. Oftentimes traditional wood or metal fences can fill this role but using trees can help take your backyard experience to a new level.

What Trees To Use

When looking into creating a living wall we often want to use trees that can live close together and in a way that doesn’t allow them to crowd other plants by taking too large a share of the resources. Evergreens, cypress, particularly Italian cypress, and larger flowering trees are perfect for creating clear boundaries.

Know Your Zone

While you may have your eye on a specific tree you found online that you would love to use. Most trees are tied to a hardiness zone. This takes into account where a tree can not only live but thrive and have healthy growth the way that you want it to. An orange tree that may flourish in Florida may not be a good fit in Montana. Even trees that would logically make sense from a climate perspective may not do well when looking at the soil composition. It’s important to make sure that whichever tree species you choose fits into the hardiness zone that you live in.

Know Your Space

A Red Oak does not always fit in a backyard. Making sure you have the appropriate space for the tree or trees you intend to plant is critical to making sure they have the resources they need.

Small backyards or areas that are in need of a designated space often use trees such as the Italian Cypress. The Italian Cypress can be planted fairly close to one another and grow mostly vertically rather than outward. This allows the ability to create a living fence using trees. The Italian Cypress is most known for its ability to create beautiful pathing for roads in Italy. Oftentimes in America, it is now used to create beautiful driveways, private yards, and to create small spaces for more intimate settings with friends and family.

On the other hand, if you have a large space in need of privacy willows can be a great choice. Long bowing branches on the weeping willow allow for quick and easy privacy. The Willow grows very quickly and can reach around 50 ft in height. Proper spacing to allow the trees to accommodate each other and grow at an optimal speed will have your property looking like an estate in no time. While Weeping Willows are primarily used for much larger properties as they can grow quite wide and tall. Individual or paired willows can be used for much smaller backyards. Creating a sense of privacy and tranquility that few other trees can match.

Adding something unique such as a cherry blossom tree in a small backyard can provide a pop of color that is not only extremely vibrant and beautiful but peaceful as well. For larger areas, rows of cherry blossoms trees can be used to create magical driveways or walkways that truly feel like you’re on a different planet. With their pink flowers spreading up to 20 feet creating an area that is hard to forget can be accomplished in a very short amount of time. Cherry Blossom trees are most commonly found in the 5-9 hardiness zones.

While the list of trees that can be used for privacy is extensive. Always keep a lookout for your hardiness zone, the size of your property, and what tree best suits the role you are trying to accomplish.