This Fast-Growing Hedge Gives You Privacy With A Lush, Polished Look

Is there anything more capable of adding a sense of elegance to your landscape, while nostalgically teleporting you to the fictional Manderley estate, than a beautiful dense hedge around your lawn? Besides adding that lost sense of aesthetic charm, hedges are excellent for creating a more private outdoor space, bringing calmness among the elements like strong winds and acting as a buffer between you and the outside world. Although there are a number of low-maintenance hedges you can plant in your yard, there is one plant variety that can astonish you with its speed of growth while always being extremely soothing to the sight: the box leaf privet.

Box leaf privet (Ligustrum undulatum) is a beautiful hedging plant that can reach more than 3 feet high within its first year of planting and grows to as tall as 6 ½ feet with lush, glossy foliage. A hardy evergreen — privets can thrive through USDA Hardiness Zones 3 to 10 – this particular shrub grows best in complete sun, but it can tolerate partial shade as well. Box leaf privet adapts well to just about any type of soil and likes a lot of watering, pruning, and fertilizing as it grows. However, once you have it established in your yard, you don't have to worry much about its water requirements, since mature hedges do not require frequent watering. Although many varieties of the privet genus can be quite aggressive (such as the California privet, the fast-growing privacy tree that's popular in the Hamptons) and some are reported as invasive in various states, the box leaf privet is noninvasive and does not produce any seeds.

You can propagate box leaf privet from stem cuttings, preferably with long and straight stems taken from a healthy plant, and they will be ready to adorn your garden edges in about six months. Make sure the stem is about 1 ½ inches long and not too thick. Get rid of the leaves in the lower half of the cuttings and put them in a mix of peat moss and perlite. You can fill your entire seedling tray with a bunch of cuttings, and they will all develop roots in about two to three months as long as they are thoroughly watered. Just make sure to keep the cuttings away from direct sunlight and wind at this point.

You can proceed to pot the cuttings as soon as roots begin to emerge from them. As before, water the seedlings really well and keep them sheltered. Once the plants double in size and develop healthy roots, you can take them out in the garden to grow. Planting one box leaf privet per foot of soil is enough to get a bushy hedge. The shrub responds very well to pruning and shaping, which also makes it great for using as topiary in your yard. In fact, you'll find its foliage grows denser the more you cut it. To add further charm to your hedges with this plant, try the 'Lemon Lime and Clippers' cultivar, which will offer you delightful golden foliage with scented white flowers during summers.