Beautiful and low maintenance plants for fence line

Some of the best plants for fence lines can make your yard look straight out of a magazine cover. Not only do the plants along fence lines add privacy and curb appeal, but they also bring texture, color, and life to your garden. Whether you want to soften the hard edges of a fence, create a natural privacy screen, or add year-round greenery, choosing the best plants for fence lines is key. 

Here, we explore a variety of beautiful, low-maintenance options that thrive in different light conditions—from full shade to partial sun—and offer features such as green foliage, dark green leaves, red berries, and ornamental grasses.

Why Plant Along Fence Lines?

Fence line landscaping utilizes vertical space effectively, adding depth and dimension to your outdoor living area. Unlike bare fences, plants bring natural beauty and can increase your property’s value. Plus, many evergreen shrubs and medium-sized plants provide year-round coverage, ensuring privacy and lovely landscaping regardless of the season. With minimal care—such as annual feeding with well-rotted manure and regular watering—these plants can flourish without demanding too much attention.

So, let’s explore these beauties and add a whole new dimension to your outdoor living space. 

Sometimes, installing a fence is not an option for your yard. Or sometimes, it’s not enough to make your home look exclusive. You can utilize greenery to reflect your property lines. Plants do not just provide the much-needed privacy; they make your property charming too.

Tips for Choosing the Best Plants for Your Fence Line

• Consider Light Conditions: Choose plants suited for full shade, partial shade, or full sun depending on your fence location.
• Size Matters: Select medium-sized shrubs or trees that fit your fence height and space without overwhelming the area.
• Evergreen vs. Deciduous: For year-round privacy, evergreen shrubs with dark green foliage are best. Deciduous plants add seasonal interest but may leave gaps in winter.
• Maintenance Level: Opt for low-maintenance plants if you prefer minimal pruning and care.
• Additional Features: Look for plants with ornamental qualities like red berries, fragrant flowers, or colorful leaves that turn in autumn.

So, let’s begin listing out the best plants for the fence line so you can choose which ones work for your yard!

Arborvitae

Arborvitae is a classic choice for privacy fences. When the trees are correctly spaced apart, their dense evergreen foliage forms a hedge. These evergreen shrubs feature dense, dark green foliage that remains vibrant throughout winter. They grow in various sizes, from compact dwarfs to tall varieties, making them ideal for medium-sized to large fence lines. Arborvitae thrives in full sun and tolerates most soil types, forming a lush hedge that blocks views and noise effectively.

Bamboo

Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants, creating a lush, exotic screen quickly. Opt for clumping varieties to keep growth manageable, or plant bamboo in containers. Its tall, slender green foliage adds an elegant vertical element to fence lines, perfect for full sun or partial shade.

Read more: Why is my grass growing in clumps

Skip Laurel (Cherry Laurel)

Skip laurel is a dense evergreen shrub with glossy dark green leaves and fragrant white flowers in spring. It thrives in full sun and well-drained soil, growing up to 10 feet tall. This shrub is great for creating a tall, attractive privacy screen that also adds seasonal floral interest. It does require annual shaping and pruning, but that’s about it.

Privet

Privet is a fast-growing plant that offers you the privacy you need. It’s perfect for fence lining. When given proper care, the hedge can grow 2 to 3 feet each year. You’ll need to prune and water it regularly. And, the best part? Every spring, the plant produces a thick cover of sweet-smelling flowers.

Holly

Holly comes in lovely colors, shapes, and sizes—as tall trees, dense shrubs, or climbers. The plant has signature sharp, spiny leaves and red berries during fall and winter. Holly also produces white flowers in spring, making it a year-round beauty for fence lines.

The evergreen shrubs can adapt to a range of growing conditions, both tropical and temperate zones, and different light conditions, including partial shade. Also, if you’re looking to prevent wandering wild animals in your yard, holly is a good choice.

Boxwood

Boxwood is perfect if you want a formal, sculpted look. This evergreen shrub has rich green leaves and can be pruned into neat shapes or left to grow naturally up to 20 feet tall. Boxwoods do well in partial shade to full sun and are excellent for creating structured privacy screens along fence lines. Varieties include deep green, white variegated, and gold-leaved types, adding visual interest. You can either grow this plant variety in containers or as a fence that protects your yard from prying eyes. 

Pyracantha (Firethorn)

Pyracantha is an evergreen shrub with glossy dark green leaves and clusters of white flowers in spring, followed by bright red or orange berries in fall and winter. This thorny shrub is excellent for security and privacy along fence lines, attracting birds and adding ornamental value.

Hicks Yew

Hicks Yew is a popular evergreen shrub prized for its elegant, columnar shape and rich green needles. It’s a low-maintenance plant that works beautifully along fence lines, offering year-round privacy and structure. With its soft foliage and ability to tolerate shade, Hicks Yew is a versatile choice for both formal and natural landscapes.

Red Twig Dogwood

This deciduous plant, with its cheerful thicket of bright red branches during the winter season, looks impressive. The fast-growing shrub can tolerate extreme temperatures and all soil conditions, even soggy soils. It can grow about 8 feet tall and 10 feet wide. And you know what? The foliage turns yellow in autumn, adding seasonal interest beyond its winter color.

Chocolate Vine

This hardy low-maintenance plant grows well on a trellis or a fence. The thick screen of dark green foliage and the fragrant purple blooms during the early summer season add a lovely charm to your property. The plant requires regular pruning as it can spread pretty quickly. 

Hydrangea

Hydrangeas are medium-sized shrubs that bring a burst of color with their large, cone-shaped blooms. Bonus: Some leaves turn deep red or gold in fall, offering extra seasonal appeal. They prefer partial shade and moist soil, making them ideal for fence lines that don’t get full sun. While hydrangeas lose their leaves in the off-season, their flowers—from pink to blue depending on soil acidity—make them a standout feature in summer. They are a great choice for a hedge plant and can quickly become the focal point of your garden and yard. However, do keep in mind that the plant loses its leaves during the off-season and may not provide you with year-round privacy.

Euonymus

Euonymus shrubs are versatile evergreens with dark green or variegated leaves. They tolerate a wide range of conditions and can be pruned into topiaries or natural hedges. Their medium size makes them suitable for smaller fence lines where space is limited.

Cypress

These can be the ideal privacy trees for your outdoor space. Tall and slender, the trees grow quickly –at the growth rate of 3 to 5 feet per year. Its feathery, soft, and evergreen foliage will provide the best landscaping you’ll need. But remember to prune it regularly.  

Lilac

These can be the ideal privacy trees for your outdoor space. Tall and slender, the trees grow quickly, at a growth rate of 3 to 5 feet per year. Its feathery, soft, and evergreen foliage will provide the best landscaping you’ll need. But remember to prune it regularly.  

Butterfly Bush

This lovely bush, with even lovelier purple flowers blooming from spring to fall, attracts pollinators and other beneficial bugs. Moreover, the flowering shrub is drought-tolerant. It needs minimal attention. 

Juniper

This plant can make a fantastic privacy screen plant – growing up to 10 feet tall. When planted close together, its foliage can help keep your yard away from the prying eyes of the neighbors. And, it even blocks wind when you need it to.

Ornamental Grasses

For texture and movement, ornamental grasses are a fantastic addition to fence lines. They come in various heights and colors, often featuring green foliage that turns golden or reddish in fall. These grasses thrive in full sun to partial shade and require minimal maintenance.

Some Climbing Plants for Fence Lines

Clematis

Clematis varieties, such as Clematis montana ‘Elizabeth’, are vigorous climbers with abundant pale pink flowers in spring. They prefer roots in shade and tops in sun, making them perfect for fences with partial shade. Clematis adds a romantic, colorful touch to any fence line.

Climbing Roses

Classic and timeless, climbing roses like Rosa banksiae ‘Alba Plena’ produce fragrant white flowers and semi-evergreen foliage. They require full sun and regular pruning but reward with spectacular blooms that can cover large fence areas.

Honeysuckle (Lonicera)

Honeysuckle is known for its sweet fragrance and tubular flowers that attract pollinators. It grows well in full sun to partial shade and can quickly cover fences, creating a natural privacy screen with lush green leaves.

Kiwi Vine (Actinidia kolomikta)

This striking climber features ovate leaves tipped with silver and pink, offering a unique foliage display. It prefers sunny spots and provides white flowers in summer. Kiwi vine is ideal for adding vibrant green foliage and interest to sunny fence lines.

Read more: Budget friendly landscaping projects

Last Thoughts

Planting along fence lines is a smart way to enhance your yard’s privacy, beauty, and value. The right combination of evergreen shrubs, flowering climbers, and ornamental grasses can transform a plain fence into a vibrant, green backdrop that changes with the seasons. Incorporate plants with lush green foliage and dark green leaves to create a dense screen, and add pops of color with red berries or seasonal blooms. Whether your fence line is in full shade, partial shade, or full sun, there are plenty of medium-sized, low-maintenance plants ready to thrive and beautify your outdoor space.

With these ideas and tips, your fence line will no longer be just a boundary—it will be a living, breathing part of your garden that you’ll love to see every day.Read more: Easy maintenance evergreen bushes for your house

Written by Ramona Sinha. June 23, 2022

Ramona is the Senior Content Writer for Kukun. This experienced blogger uses simple and succinct words to decipher the complex phenomenon called life. She has written articles covering a broad range of topics, such as real estate, lending and mortgage, finance, business, taxation, home designs, home improvement projects, decor concepts, and more. An avid traveler, she’s a digital nomad at heart and an animal lover from the depth of her soul.