The best cheap fast growing hedge is privet, which gives you dense evergreen cover for a few dollars a plant and adds 2 to 3 feet of growth a year. If you want a budget privacy hedge that costs even less per foot, buy bare-root hawthorn or small arborvitae whips instead of big container plants. You spend a fraction of the price and the gap closes faster than most people expect.
I knelt in the damp back corner one cold November, where my lawn runs into the woods. I was bundling a bargain bare-root hawthorn order before the ground froze. The roots looked like bare twigs with a tangle of string under them. I heeled half the bundle into a trench of loose soil to keep them moist. Then I dug the rest of the line. By the next summer that thin row of sticks had filled into a green run I could not see through.
Bare-root plants cost so little because the nursery grows them in open ground and ships them with no pot, no soil, and no water weight. A potted hedge plant might run you $25 to $40 each, while the same plant sold bare-root in winter can drop to $3 to $6. You are paying for the plant, not for years of greenhouse care and a heavy container.
Buying small saves real money, and it works better than you might think. A young whip puts its energy into new roots fast, so it often catches up to a pricey mature plant within two or three seasons. The trick is to plant more of them. You can fill a long run with cheap small stock and still spend less than a short row of big specimens.
Privet
- Cost: Among the cheapest fast hedges, often sold in small pots or bare-root for just a few dollars each.
- Speed: Grows 2 to 3 feet a year and takes hard trimming, so it knits into a solid screen fast.
- Best use: Quick evergreen or semi-evergreen cover where you want privacy in a single season or two.
Bare-Root Hawthorn
- Cost: Sold in winter bundles, so a full row costs a fraction of the same plants in pots.
- Speed: Thickens into a dense, thorny barrier within a year and shrugs off poor soil.
- Best use: A tough rural boundary or wildlife hedge along a damp edge or field line.
Green Giant Arborvitae
- Cost: Buy small whips instead of tall trees and the price per plant drops sharply.
- Speed: Adds up to 3 feet a year once settled, reaching a tall evergreen wall.
- Best use: A year-round privacy screen for larger yards with room to spread.
Privet is my top pick when you want fast cheap evergreen cover and a tidy clipped look. Hawthorn wins for a tough country boundary, and small Green Giant arborvitae whips give you a tall year-round wall if you have the room. All three move quickly once their roots take hold.
Timing is where bare-root hedging earns its low price. Buy these plants during the dormant season, from late fall through late winter, while they are leafless and asleep. Plant in fall if you can, because the soil is still warm and the roots spread before spring growth begins. A fall-planted whip hits the ground running and needs far less watering than one you set out in summer heat.
Skip the urge to buy a few big plants and spread them thin. Order a bundle of cheap bare-root stock, space them about 18 inches apart for a fast knit, and water them through the first dry spell. You get a full screen for the cost of one or two container plants, and within a couple of summers no one will guess you went the budget route.
Read the full article: Best Fast Growing Hedge Plants Guide
