Many gardeners may not be allowed to erect a privacy fence because of city ordinances, zoning restrictions, or HOA agreements, and fences are frightfully expensive. Or, perhaps the wood or vinyl privacy panel look isn’t the vibe you want. Hedges of evergreen shrubbery are a great option, but they are not only expensive, they also take years to reach functional size. 

If you want something now, to enjoy this year, choose fast-growing plants you can start from seed. Fast-growing herbaceous (non-woody) annuals and perennials make a lot of sense for solving that quick seasonal screening or soft fencing need. We’re most often outside during the summer and early fall, right when these plants are in full swing. They screen ugly views, soften the feel of a busy street, and support birds and pollinators in the warmer months. 

A living fence, or privacy screen of lush green foliage, offers a more natural look. It provides many of the same benefits (except keeping the dog in the yard) without erecting a six-foot-tall permanent barrier. By planting a variety, you can enjoy foliage and flowers from spring well into autumn. 

First, set up for success

To have success with our screening or privacy planting, we’ll first need to ensure we’ve prepared the bed. If you're planting in an established garden area, this may already be done. However, these tall plantings are often headed for a spot that was previously yard turf, which will require more effort, but it still needs to be done. Since these beds are frequently long and narrow, it isn’t as much of a project as you might think and is normally easy to do with hand tools.

When designing your new screen or privacy planting, it can be tempting to make these new tall-plant beds narrow to minimize work, but I recommend at least 24 inches wide. Grass and weeds will creep in, and we often don’t plant all the way up to the edge. Give yourself enough width so the plants will have room to grow. For a truly fat, sassy border that screens out unwanted views, consider even wider. Staggered rows, tighter spacing, and a mix of species produce a better view-blocker than a single row. 

Model the plant screen with a broomstick held by a helper and see if it functions as you expect. As a rule, the closer the visual blocker is to the observer, the more sight picture it hides. A patch of sunflowers outside your kitchen window will be more effective at hiding the neighbor’s house than if planted 30 feet away on the property line.

Finally, prepare the site. If your planting spot was previously yard grass, see our article about creating a veggie patch out of a lawn for more information (the steps are the same). Here is a quick summary.

• Remove all sod. This can be done with a normal garden spade; no need for fancy equipment. Digging up the sod is better than simply tilling it up because you’ll get more of the grass roots and avoid chopping up the rhizomes into a hundred individual sprouting pieces. Save the sod to fill low spots in your yard, or compost it.

• Loosen the soil. A garden fork is normally sufficient for this project. Lawns can get quite compacted, which hinders root formation and young plant growth, as well as air and water exchange. Dig the tines in as deep as possible and rock back to break up the compacted soil. It’s okay to have a few clumps when you’re done, but the soil should now be loose enough to work with a hand trowel easily. 

• Add compost or organic material. If your now-loosened planting area looks a bit short on fertility, work in some compost or other organic materials like shredded leaves or untreated grass clippings. A 2-3 inch thick layer is a good start. Organic material improves soil structure, which many former yard sites sorely need.

• Prep the seed bed: Rake the surface smooth in preparation for planting.

Tip: This is a good time to add a drip line or soaker hose, especially for long, narrow beds, to provide simple irrigation later.

Stand-alone plants for privacy

Sometimes we don’t want, or aren’t allowed, to erect a fence or structure, but still need that sense of enclosure and privacy. A ten-foot gap between the house and the neighbor’s garage, or screening the play area from the street are perfect reasons to plant some of these stand-alone plants. 

For a fast, upright, tall screen

• Sunflowers: Easy-growing sunflowers make a fast privacy hedge. Their large leaves, sturdy stalks, and heights of ten feet or more make them a common choice to fill sight gaps and create a cheerful wall of foliage and flowers. Choose a giant, a tall, and a medium size and interplant them for a multi-layered effect and a better wall of leaves and blooms. Russian Mammoth, Earthwalker, and Soraya will combine to make a stunning wall of foliage and blooms.

• Corn: It sounds corny, but a few rows of corn can be quite the privacy screen by midsummer. Have some fun and plant a few different varieties. Many sweet corn varieties are shorter, but dent or flour corn types like Bloody Butcher can reach 8-10 feet tall. By midsummer, you’ll have a living fence that keeps growing and filling in through the rest of the season. In autumn, leave the stalks standing or use them for fall decorations. If you do want ears as well as a corn fence, plant at least four rows to aid in pollination.

For midheight screening

Create a mixed species planting of tall flowers to add interest and form a denser screen. These flowers also work beautifully with a few sunflowers in that 5-8 foot range to bump up the height without looking like a wall.

• Milkweed: Several milkweed species grow to be four feet tall, perfect for filling in under a taller flower or plant and screening at mid-height. Choose a species native to your area, and you’ll support monarch butterfly caterpillars! As a bonus, these perennials are deer-resistant and quite hardy once established.

• Zinnias: For flower power, bang for the buck, and willingness to grow, you can’t beat zinnias. Another plant for low and mid-height; some zinnia varieties, like Benary’s Giant, grow to over four feet tall. These annuals are sturdy and tough, and they keep blooming until the first killing frosts. As a bonus, they're easy to direct-seed straight into the garden bed. A two-foot wide strip of tall zinnias makes a hedge all on its own.

• African marigolds: If you thought marigolds were all short plants for the edge of garden beds, check out African marigolds (Tagetes erecta) like Crackerjack. The African marigolds in my garden often grow into a hedge of blooms and foliage, four feet tall and wide. 

• Hollyhocks: These tall, old-fashioned flowers can reach seven feet tall. They may be either biennial (foliage the first year, spikes of tall flowers the second year) or perennial depending on the variety. 

Quick Climbers and Vines for Fences

If you’ve already got a chain-link fence, split rail, or plan to add vertical structure to support your privacy planting, it’s a great place to add climbing and vining plants to soften the look, add more screening, and maybe even grab a harvest or two.

Perennials are great for covering an arbor, arch, trellis, or fence with greenery and blooms, but they can be frustrating in their early years. To help with the empty-trellis look, use annuals from seed to fill in while your perennials establish. For example, an arbor of climbing roses will take several years to establish, so add annual vines and a few stand-alone plants to create some privacy and screening in years 1-3.  

• Luffa: Luffa sponges (also loofah; either way is correct) will quite willingly climb a trellis or fence. In full sun and fertile soil, they are fast-growing vines, and by late summer, you’ll have large, dark green fruits resembling cucumbers hanging from the trellis. If your growing season is warm and long enough, you can turn them into your own home-grown sponges and scrub pads. 

• Gourds, pumpkins, and squashes: Decorative gourds and birdhouse gourds are eager to climb and provide fun shapes and colors for fall decorations, plus vining foliage for privacy and screening. Vining varieties of small pumpkins and winter squashes can also be trained up a fence or trellis, although you’ll need to support the fruit as it grows on larger types. A cattle panel, held upright with metal T-posts, makes an excellent, sturdy climbing aid for these heavier plants and doubles as a practical fence.

• Pole beans, hyacinth beans, and scarlet runner beans: Vining or pole beans are an excellent, super-easy way to get foliage up in the air where it can provide shade, block views, and even add harvest or flower color. Pole beans will readily climb up anything that isn’t too smooth, and some varieties will reach 8-10 feet tall if their structure is that high. All will easily cover a chain link fence or swarm up a tripod. Hyacinth beans and scarlet runner beans provide colorful flowers and a wall of large, vibrant green leaves. Be sure to cook hyacinth beans before eating them.

A note on shady spots

Most tall, fast-growing annuals or biennials are sun-loving plants and need at least six hours of full sun to reach their advertised size. So what can you do for a shadier area, perhaps in partial sun, where a privacy planting would be perfect? 

Partial sun locations for privacy and screen plantings are a good spot to splurge on nursery-started perennials, and it's a perfect opportunity to add a few native plants to your garden while you’re at it. 

For example, Sweet Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum) is a partial-sun-suited species that will grow to about six feet tall or more in fertile locations, even without full sunshine. Virgin’s bower (Clematis virginiana) is a native vining perennial which will rapidly cover fences and trellises with green foliage and dainty white flowers, and does quite well in partial sun. 

Look for fast-growing, native, hardy species that do well in partial sun or even light shade, and plant them at the minimum recommended spacing. Pay close attention to watering and fertilizing, if needed, and you’ll have a green, blooming border in those shadier spots.