Landscaping with Evergreens: 17 Ideas

evergreen design

Luckily for those who are into landscaping with evergreens, there are hundreds of varieties available out there. Many of them grow to huge dimensions, but there are also some dwarf selections that can help you create an interesting design in your backyard. Today we are going to have a look at a couple of ideas for landscaping with evergreens in your garden.

Landscaping with Evergreens – Emergency Ideas for When You’re Out of Inspiration

1. Create Beds and Borders

The easiest way to take advantage of evergreens in your garden is to use them for beds and borders. One suggestion we have for this situation is using the bird’s nest spruce (scientifically called Picea abies Nidiformis). You can plant it everywhere you want to delimit an area. A good idea is to create a visual break from the green row by also planting colored plants in between. Many people love using evergreens for poolscaping, for example.

2. Make Your Own Private Corner

You may realize that your backyard isn’t offering you as much privacy as you’d want. Choose the best trees for privacy (such as the thuja green giant, American holly, etc.) and plant them to form a screen. You can adjust the shape and the size according to the area you want to obscure in your garden. Some gardeners choose to plant tall trees and create a space that is hidden from neighbor’s eyes.

landscaping with evergreens colorful evergreen design

3. Hide the House’s Foundation

A trick you can create when landscaping with evergreens is to hide your home’s foundation. Often, this can have a different aspect than the one you’d wish for it to have. Luckily, evergreens keep their foliage all winter (which is why they’re called like this), so you can take advantage of that and mask the less aesthetic parts of your construction. The best idea is to use various shapes and colors. Feel free to use whatever species you want, just make sure that you plant them in a compact manner. One configuration could be: Profusion White zinnia, Montgomery blue spruce, Blue Shag white pine, and Silver Whispers Swiss stone pine.

4. Create Fun Shapes

When landscaping with evergreens, you can let your imagination run wild and make some creative shapes out of them. Some species, such as yews and junipers, enjoy a tight growth habit. You shouldn’t let this opportunity pass and use your creativity to make fun shapes. A good idea is to grow two of them a couple of feet apart and then get them together to create a living arbor. Many gardeners love to shape their evergreens into animals, but you can try whatever comes to your mind.

5. Have a Soothing Backdrop

The beds and borders you have can contrast nicely with a pleasant and elegant background made of evergreens. Ideally, you should go for tall varieties with dark green foliage, if you want to highlight some bright colors. Alternatively, you can also choose some cultivars with colorful foliage, for example, a blue spruce.

What’s important here is that you pay attention to the plant shapes. Combine tall and upright evergreens (such as the Medora juniper and the Iseli Fastigiate blue spruce) to make a contrast with mounded perennials or a lawn.

landscaping with evergreens hedge animal

6. Create a Garden Room

A garden room is a space (big or small) enclosed by various plants. Plant medium-sized upright evergreens in a square to obtain this effect. Even if you don’t use other plants as walls, it will still have an intimidate appeal to it. A good suggestion, in this case, is using the dwarf Alberta spruce, for example. Besides this, you can also use shrubs to create walls and thus, privacy.

7. Cover the Ground

Another idea for landscaping with evergreens is to create an appealing carpet on the ground. Plant some spreading evergreens, such as the blue spruce, junipers, or spreading pines, and let them fill a space. This is an easy trick if you want to obscure some areas on the ground and highlight others. Moreover, you will enjoy this arrangement all year-round.

8. Create a Majestic Entrance

If you want to go extra in your backyard, a good idea is to have a majestic entrance. Prune your evergreens into fancy shapes. Nothing makes for a beautiful garden more than a spiraled juniper, for example. Place the evergreens you choose on both sides of your gate if you want to have a bold and formal feeling. You’ll need to prune them every year if you want them to keep their shape, but it’s a small effort for the great result you’ll have.

landscaping with evergreens evergreen decor

9. Play with the Fall Colors

A certain way of highlighting the fall colors in your own backyard is to start landscaping with evergreens. Use one of the following:

  • Dwarf blue spruce (Picea Pungens Corbet);
  • Korean fire (Abies koreana Horstmann Silberlocke);
  • Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii).

Then, plant in between or behind them trees that get bold red or orange. If you choose dark green evergreen species, you can also combine them with trees that get bright yellow. As such, every fall you’ll have a lovely décor to admire without too much effort.

landscaping with evergreens stone pathway lined with evergreens

10. Choose a Unified Design

It may sound strange at first, but a good idea is to choose a unified design for your backyard. What does that mean? The idea behind it is simple: use the same geometrical shapes all throughout the space. Create a coherent aspect by placing stone spheres next to a path and matching them with rounded boxwood hedges. Add another arbor with a round shape further on and you’re set. But you don’t need to choose only round shapes. Play around with various geometrical shapes and don’t be afraid of experimenting with colors too.

11. Potted Evergreens

Though this isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you plan on landscaping with evergreens, you can also plant them in containers. An important thing to keep in mind is that they grow to be very big, so make sure you choose an adequate container. The Austrian pine is a great species that fits this purpose because it adds a splash of color. You can use it on a deck, patio, driveway, balcony, or on a rooftop garden. The best thing about it is that it helps create some privacy as well.

landscaping with evergreens white pine in container

12. Flowers + Evergreens = Love

Flowering evergreens are a perfect choice if you want to add some landscape drama. Here you have a couple of options to choose from:

  • Rhododendrons
  • Pieris
  • Mountain laurels
  • Abelias
  • Camellias
  • Loropetalum 

Naturally, there are plenty other species, but these are some of the most common that can inspire you.

13. Cut Down on Your Energy Bills

How can you cut down on your energy bills by landscaping with evergreens? It might seem surprising, but you can use evergreens to shield your home. Protect it from the cold winter winds by creating a windbreak. Plant the trees on the north or east side of your home and watch how your bills shrink month to month.

14. Use a Bold Accent

Some evergreen species are truly impressive without any other companions. You should choose an impressive variety and treat it as a specimen plant for your garden. Here you have a couple of options to choose from:

  • Golden ‘Chief Joseph’ pine
  • White-variegated Horstmann’s Silberlocke Korean fir
  • Contorted ‘Emerald Twister’ Douglas fir

These are very eye-catching, so you can just draw your viewer’s attention with a single tree planted in an empty area. Alternatively, you can also create a contrasting backdrop if you want to have a richer area.

landscaping with evergreens evergreen facade decor

15. Have Some Curb Appeal

If you’re planning on landscaping with evergreens in your front yard, then having some curb appeal is an easy way out. Just fill all the space up with an impressive collection of evergreens. Combine varieties that have different colors, textures, and shapes. They will create a nice design and you don’t even need flowers to make an attractive décor.

16. Cover a Slope

Just like with covering up the ground, you can take advantage of spreading evergreens and cover up a slope you’re tired of mowing. We know how many hours of effort you put into it every week, which is why this is a very useful trick. Plant a mass of Blue Rug Juniper, for example, and let it take over space. Besides look good for an entire year, they can also stop the erosion of the soil and keep weeds at bay.

landscaping with evergreens evergreen deocr

17. Adapt the Evergreens to Your Area

The last idea on our list is to adapt the trees to the area you live in. Even though they are quite hardy in general, some evergreen species may not like a certain temperature, humidity, light, etc. For this reason, it’s important to be well informed before planting anything. After all, nobody wants their trees to die soon after they planted it, right?

Conclusion

To sum it all up, landscaping with evergreens is a great way of boosting your garden. Whether you like one idea or another from the ones we mentioned above, it’s important to arrange the evergreens in an aesthetically pleasant manner. Make sure you don’t overdo it and educate yourself about their requirements.

Image source: depositphotos.com

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