Evergreen trees and shrubs provide year-round greenery, but they’re also a great way to create a natural privacy screen and sound barrier. Unlike fences, which may have height restrictions imposed by local municipalities, evergreen barriers can grow as tall as nature allows. To add one to your yard, you’ll need to consider factors such as power lines and the mature width of the plants.
In the guide below, we’ll walk you through key considerations and plant options.
Evergreen Plants For Privacy
When planning your evergreen screen, choose varieties that are well-suited to your specific climate. You can check the USDA’s plant hardiness map if you’re unsure about which zone you live in. We recommend planting a mix of evergreens for visual interest and disease resistance. The list below describes 13 low-maintenance options that are easy to plant.
Choose the Right Form: When selecting evergreens for screening, look for “fastigiate” or “columnar” varieties, which tend to grow upright rather than spreading wide. This is especially important in tighter corridors or smaller properties where you need height without sacrificing yard space. As TOH Magazine advises, consider each plant’s ultimate height, spread, and growth rate before committing — and consult with your local nursery for varieties suited to your area.
Green Giant Arborvitae
(Thuja plicata ‘Green Giant’)
- Dimensions at maturity: 20 feet high and 5 feet wide
- USDA hardiness zones: 3 to 8
- Spacing: 4 feet
Planting an evergreen privacy screen on the north side of your house can effectively block winter winds while adding beauty to your landscape. The Arborvitae ‘Green Giant’ is an excellent choice for this purpose, capable of growing up to 3 feet in a year. The dense foliage acts as a natural sound barrier.
Will It Really Block Noise? While dense evergreens like the Green Giant are often touted as sound barriers, TOH landscape contractor Roger Cook offers a more nuanced take: “Greenscaping that blocks the view of the noise’s source will always make a property more comfortable. Even a nice lawn will make you feel farther from the road.” Acoustics engineer Jim Barnes, who has worked with TOH on noise-reduction projects, agrees that the visual screening creates a perceived reduction in noise: “If people say ‘Yeah, it’s much quieter,’ I take them at their word.”
Why Green Giant? Lee Gilliam, landscape contractor on Ask This Old House, calls the Green Giant his favorite arborvitae, noting its key advantages: “Single leader. Deer-resistant.” Unlike other arborvitae varieties with multiple leaders that can split open under heavy wet snow, the Green Giant’s single-leader structure makes it far more resilient in harsh winter conditions.
Leyland Cypress
(x Cupressocyparis leylandii)
- Dimensions at maturity: 70 feet high and 15 feet wide
- USDA hardiness zones: 6 to 10
- Spacing: 15 feet
The Leyland Cypress features a broad to tapering form with dense, dark green to grayish fans of foliage. Its smooth bark makes it a popular choice for landscapes and gardens.
Rocky Mountain Juniper
(Juniperus scopulorum ‘Wichita Blue’)
- Dimensions at maturity: 30 feet high and 6 feet wide
- USDA hardiness zones: 3 to 7
- Spacing: 6 feet
The Rocky Mountain Juniper ‘Wichita Blue’ is known for striking, bright blue-gray needles. This shrub takes on a pyramidal form and features exfoliating red-brown bark. Its unique coloration can complement many garden styles, and its moderate size is suitable for both large and small properties.
Italian Cypress
(Cupressus sempervirens)
- Dimensions at maturity: 70 feet high and 20 feet wide
- USDA hardiness zones: 7 to 10
- Spacing: 20 feet
The Italian Cypress is a tall, narrow conifer that forms a dense column of gray-green to dark-green needles with upright branches. Its distinctive shape makes it popular for formal gardens and Mediterranean-inspired landscapes. Its height and narrowness make it perfect for creating tall, slender privacy screens.
White Spruce
(Picea glauca)
- Dimensions at maturity: 60 feet high and 20 feet wide
- USDA hardiness zones: 3 to 6
- Spacing: 20 feet
The White Spruce features a narrow, conical shape with stiff blue-green needles and gray-brown bark. Its dense growth habit makes it an excellent choice for privacy screens and windbreaks. The tree’s thick foliage also provides habitat for birds and wildlife.
Hicksii Yew
(Taxus x media ‘Hicksii’)
- Dimensions at maturity: 20 feet high and 12 feet wide
- USDA hardiness zones: 4 to 7
- Spacing: 12 feet
The Hicksii Yew boasts soft needles that form a dense, dark green barrier. While beautiful, it’s important to note that the foliage can brown if exposed to harsh winter winds. Proper winter care can mitigate this issue.
Fall Watering Is Key: Keep yews well-watered from fall right up until the ground freezes. Winter winds are so dry that they suck moisture out of the leaves from above, and once the ground freezes, water can no longer travel up through the roots to replace it. Adding three to four inches of mulch—either bark mulch or ground-up leaves—helps moderate soil temperature and delays freezing, giving roots more time to supply moisture to the foliage.
TOH landscape contractor Roger Cook recommends shielding newly planted yews from harsh gusts: hammer 1x stakes into the ground to create a frame, then wrap the frame with burlap and staple the material to the stakes. For tall, narrow specimens, wrap the shrub into a tight column with twine to keep branches from collecting heavy snow or ice and breaking off.
Winter Protection: To prevent browning from dry winter winds, apply a spray-on anti-desiccant that coats the leaves and seals the pores on the foliage, locking moisture inside. Start applications in November and reapply once a month through winter—but only when temperatures are above 40 degrees so the coating dries on the leaf rather than freezing. The waxy layer breaks down naturally by spring, so there’s no need to remove it.
American Holly
(Ilex opaca)
- Dimensions at maturity: 50 feet high and 40 feet wide
- USDA hardiness zones: 5 to 9
- Spacing: 40 feet
The American Holly is a classic evergreen with glossy, dark green leaves and distinctive red berries (on female plants). Its dense growth habit makes it an excellent choice for privacy screens, while the bright berries add seasonal color.
Japanese Holly
(Ilex crenata ‘Sky Pencil’)
- Dimensions at maturity: 10 feet high and 3 feet wide
- USDA hardiness zones: 6 to 8
- Spacing: 3 feet
The Japanese Holly ‘Sky Pencil’ is a narrow shrub with a unique pencil-like form. It features multiple stems covered in glossy dark green leaves, with small green-white flowers appearing in spring. Its narrow profile is ideal for small gardens or urban settings.
Western Red Cedar
(Thuja plicata)
- Dimensions at maturity: 70 feet high and 25 feet wide
- USDA hardiness zones: 5 to 7
- Spacing: 25 feet
The Western Red Cedar is a large tree with reddish-brown bark and a conical shape that broadens with age. Its fragrant, scale-like leaves form flat sprays, creating a dense privacy screen and excellent windbreaker. The tree’s aromatic wood is also resistant to decay.
Western Red Cedar has a pyramidal shape with graceful, frondlike branches that may be horizontal or pendulous, turning upright at the ends—a form sometimes described as “cathedrallike.” Clusters of small cones perch at the tips of the branches, and the tree casts deep shade. It grows best in full sun with moist air and prefers deep, moist, well-drained soil, though it adapts to both acidic and alkaline conditions. Expect 12 to 18 inches of growth per year.
Western Red Cedar has been growing along the moist margins of the Pacific Northwest for millennia. As This Old House Magazine documented in a visit to the forests of British Columbia, individual specimens can stand for more than 200 years, surviving fires, windstorms, and insect attacks—trees reaching 180 feet tall and four feet across. Even old-growth logs with rotting centers still yield plenty of good, merchantable wood, a testament to the species’ remarkable natural resistance to decay.
Techny Arborvitae
(Thuja occidentalis ‘Techny’)
- Dimensions at maturity: 15 feet high and 10 feet wide
- USDA hardiness zones: 2 to 8
- Spacing: 10 feet
The Techny Arborvitae is a compact, dwarfed variety that maintains its rich green color throughout the winter. Its dense foliage makes it an excellent choice for privacy screens and hedges. This variety is also relatively low-maintenance, while its manageable size is ideal for smaller yards.
Emerald Green Arborvitae
(Thuja occidentalis ‘Smargd’)
- Dimensions at maturity: 14 feet high and 4 feet wide
- USDA hardiness zones: 2 to 7
- Spacing: 4 feet
The Emerald Green Arborvitae is a semidwarf shrub that forms a compact, narrow pyramid of bright green foliage arranged in flat fans. Its vibrant color and dense growth make it a popular choice for privacy screens. Its narrow form is suitable for tight spaces. The foliage remains bright throughout the year.
Why TOH Experts Love It: Lee Gilliam, landscape contractor on Ask This Old House, recommends the Emerald Green for smaller properties: “For smaller spaces, tighter corridors, just smaller properties in general, I’d like to use the Emerald Green arborvitae. It stays tighter, grows more vertical upright, doesn’t get too huge. So if you need a privacy screen between you and your neighbor or to mark the back property line, this is your plant.”
Eastern Red Cedar
(Juniperus virginiana)
- Dimensions at maturity: 65 feet high and 25 feet wide
- USDA hardiness zones: 2 to 9
- Spacing: 25 feet
The Eastern Red Cedar is a broad, conical tree with horizontal branching covered in dark blue-green scale-like foliage. It has gray to reddish-brown exfoliating bark that is aromatic and resistant to pests. Its adaptability makes the Eastern Red Cedar a practical choice for diverse climates.
Nigra Arborvitae
(Thuja occidentalis ‘Nigra’)
- Dimensions at maturity: 30 feet high and 10 feet wide
- USDA hardiness zones: 3 to 7
- Spacing: 10 feet
The Nigra Arborvitae is a conical or narrow pyramidal tree with flat, dark green needles. Its dense growth habit makes it an excellent choice for privacy screens and windbreaks. The rich foliage color persists throughout the seasons.
Smooth Cypress
(Cupressus arizonica var. glabra)
- Dimensions at maturity: 50 feet high and 12 feet wide
- USDA hardiness zones: 7 to 9
- Spacing: 12 feet
The Smooth Cypress is a drought-tolerant conifer with smooth, reddish-purple bark and pointed blue-gray needles. Its unique coloration adds visual interest to privacy screens and landscaping. Once established, Smooth Cypress requires minimal watering.
Planting and Maintaining Your Evergreen Barrier
When planting, space the trees according to their mature width to allow for proper growth. Exact care will depend on the species, but plan to incorporate water, mulching, fertilizing, and pruning into your routine. Most evergreens thrive in full sun, requiring at least 6 hours of direct sunlight daily to maintain their dense foliage and ensure optimal privacy. They also typically require more water during dry periods, especially in their first few years of growth.
In areas with harsh winters, protect evergreens from desiccation and cold damage by using burlap wraps or protective covers. Keep de-icing salts used on driveways and sidewalks away from the trees, as these can damage them.
