Create a Privacy Wall Around Your PA Lawn With 1 of These 5 Evergreens

We have plenty of trees in Pennsylvania. With our abundance of mountains, our state is canvassed with lush, green foliage. They create oxygen, provide shade, and offer food and shelter to various wildlife, birds, and insects. One benefit you may not have thought about is that they also create a perfect privacy wall. Utilizing trees for a privacy fence is a low-cost, easy way to put up a barrier between your house and the sometimes nosy neighbors.  A line of emerald green beauty, this privacy wall will also help block out sounds from traffic, lawn equipment, noisy kids, and barking dogs. Interested, but not sure which trees make the best privacy wall? Never fear, Showcase Lawn Works has created a list of the five top evergreens for your home or business’s privacy wall. norway spruce trees

Norway Spruce

If you’re looking to create a privacy wall fast, the Norway spruce is not only a faster-growing evergreen but the fastest growing of the spruce family. It is a popular choice for privacy fences and windbreakers. With a pyramid shape at the top, it can grow to heights of 100 feet and live for centuries. It prefers full sun and well-drained soil. It is an easy tree to take care of and competes well with grass and weeds. Pest resistant, this evergreen hardly ever falls victim to insects or disease, making it a perfect choice for both homes and businesses. It is also quite resistant to deer. Could this be the ideal tree for a privacy fence? I think we have a winner here.

Douglas Fir

This soft-textured tree is often farmed for Christmas trees, but it also looks great as a privacy fence. Its spirelike shape and variable color make it highly attractive for larger landscapes. It expands to a height of between 40 and 70 feet with a spread of 12 – ten feet at maturity. It grows at a medium rate and prefers full sun and acidic soil that is well-drained. It doesn’t like hot, dry winds, making it a perfect choice for your Eastern PA landscape. It is one of the country’s top sources of lumber today. Its firm wood is used in boats, aircraft, and construction.

Unfortunately, the Douglas fir does fall victim to several diseases and pests, including swiss needle cast, white pine blister rust, dwarf mistletoe, and sudden oak death. Proper care and a tree and shrub care maintenance program such as the one offered by Showcase Lawn Works will help protect and keep these trees thriving for years to come.

Eastern White Pine

Another fast-growing tree is the eastern white pine. It makes another excellent choice for our Eastern PA climate dealing well with warm, humid summers and cool winters. Its branches are prized for crafts and decorations, and its boughs are commonly used for Christmas wreaths. It grows best in partial shade to full sun with at least four hours of sun every day. It likes well-drained, acidic soil. Because white pines typically expand to 14 feet wide, they make the ideal evergreen for privacy. But their large shape can spread out to 14 feet wide, so be sure you plant them each far enough apart. They maintain a rounded pyramid-like appearance and can be trimmed into hedges.

The white pine is the only pine tree in the East that bears five needles to a bundle. These soft, blue-green needles look like little brushes. Unfortunately, these same pine needles can make for a cluttered landscape. The white pine is also susceptible to various pests and diseases, including white pine blister rust, which can often kill this magnificent tree. A tree and shrub care maintenance program, such as the one Showcase Lawn Works offers, that includes disease and pest control, can help prevent and protect your Eastern White Pine. 

Arborvitae

If you’re looking for an evergreen that takes up less space, the American arborvitae is a good choice. Its narrow, pyramid shape makes it a natural choice for windbreaks. You can plant these soft bushes with glossy, green needles in a row to create a wall between one landscape to the next. Most varieties of arborvitae trees mature between ten and 15 feet. They need full to partial sun and prefer moist soil. Its tiny, scale-like leaves are packed closely together in overlapping rows, and its trunk is sometimes forked near the ground into several main stems covered with reddish-brown bark. It provides a home for many birds, including grackles, robins, and house finches. It is also a favorite of deer and rabbits, but a simple deer repellent spray can help if this is a problem.

Holly

Another great option for creating a living privacy fence is the American holly, and unlike the arborvitae, it is deer resistant. It is most widely close up of holly tree branchesknown for its glossy green leaves and bright red berries. These lovely plants grow at a slower to medium rate and can reach heights between 40 – 50 feet with a width of between 18 – 40 feet when fully mature. There are about 480 deciduous and evergreen species within this genus, including trees, shrubs, and climbing lianas. They grow well in moist, well-drained soils and prefer full sun to partial shade. If you want to enjoy the sight of bright red berries throughout winter, you will need to plant a male and female holly bush.

The benefits of planting holly trees and bushes are endless. If nature is your thing, the American holly not only provides cover for songbirds and mammals after our first PA frost settles in, but the fruit becomes food for a multitude of wildlife. It can also be used to attract our essential pollinators.

Protect Your Privacy Wall & Other Trees and Shrubs With Showcase Lawn Works

Now that you know which are the top evergreen trees for creating privacy walls in the Eastern PA area, count on the professionals at Showcase Lawn Works for all your tree and shrub care needs. Our tree and shrub care program offers six different applications spaced out every four to six weeks. It consists of the fertilization needed to help your trees and shrubs grow and insect and disease control protection. In addition, we also offer deep root fertilization, dormant oil applications, and winter burn treatments.

Give us a call or contact us online to learn more. Our number is 717-354-3226. Like what you are reading? Get more tips on all things lawn care, tree and shrub care, and pest control by following our blog. Then check us out on Facebook.