A hedge helps establish the structure and character of a garden. Its height, form, foliage and colour can reinforce a particular style or provide a simple green framework for the planting around it.
Living Walls™ are fully formed instant hedges, supplied in one-metre lengths and ready to create a continuous hedge from the day they are installed.
Explore some familiar garden styles and see how hedging can contribute to each look. The completed landscapes shown below feature Living Walls™ hedges.
Already know the look you want? Explore Living Walls™ by Garden Style.
Simple planting, resilient foliage and open views
Coastal gardens often combine simple planting, natural materials and foliage that can cope with exposed conditions.
A mid-height Living Boundary™ hedge can provide shelter and separation without closing off the outlook. Taller Living Screen™ hedges can be used where greater privacy or wind protection is needed. Compact foliage and muted green or grey-green tones sit naturally alongside grasses, gravel, timber and coastal planting.
Choose the final hedge according to the particular wind, salt exposure, soil and drainage conditions of your site.
Strong lines and evergreen screening
Contemporary gardens usually rely on a limited palette, clear lines and a few well-chosen plants.
A dense Living Screen™ hedge can create privacy and provide a calm green backdrop around pools, terraces and outdoor living areas. Lower hedges can define different areas without introducing another hard landscaping material.
Dark or glossy foliage creates strong contrast, while brighter green foliage can soften concrete, paving and timber.
Evergreen structure within a compact space
In courtyards and smaller gardens, every element needs to work hard. Hedges can provide privacy, soften surrounding walls and help an outdoor area feel enclosed without taking up the space required by a broad tree canopy.
Living Boundary™ and Living Screen™ hedges can form a narrow green framework around seating and entertaining areas. Living Edge™ hedges can define beds or provide lower structure.
Where hedges are installed in containers or enclosed planters, choose a variety suited to long-term container use and allow sufficient space for its roots.
Loose planting supported by clipped evergreen structure
Cottage gardens combine abundant flowering and foliage plants with an underlying structure.
Living Edge™ hedges can define paths and beds, while mid-height hedges provide enclosure and a calm backdrop for looser planting. Flowering or fragrant hedges can also contribute seasonal interest without losing the year-round structure provided by evergreen foliage.
The contrast between clipped hedging and informal planting gives a cottage garden definition while retaining its relaxed character.
Long lines, defined spaces and a connection with the wider landscape
Country gardens often have more space to accommodate long hedge lines, broad lawns and separate garden areas.
Living Boundary™ hedges can define entrances, driveways and garden rooms without dominating the landscape. Living Screen™ hedges can provide shelter, privacy or a substantial green boundary around a house and its outdoor areas.
The choice of foliage can make the result more formal, more natural or more closely connected to the surrounding rural landscape.
Repetition, symmetry and clipped form
Formal and traditional gardens use repetition and clearly defined lines to create order.
Living Edge™ hedges can frame paths, lawns and garden beds. Taller Living Boundary™ or Living Screen™ hedges can establish symmetry, divide the garden into rooms or provide a consistent evergreen background.
Pleached Screen trees can provide elevated screening and architectural structure, with their repeated forms reinforcing the garden’s symmetry.
Sun-loving foliage, simple forms and natural materials
Mediterranean-style gardens often combine warm-toned paving or stone with a restrained planting palette.
Hedges with olive-green, grey-green or aromatic foliage complement this look particularly well. Clipped Living Boundary™ hedges can define lawns, paths and entertaining areas, while Living Screen™ hedges provide greater enclosure.
Pleached Screen trees can also reinforce the ordered, architectural character of courtyards, entrances and boundaries.
The same Living Walls™ hedge may suit several garden styles depending on how it is used, what surrounds it and how formally it is maintained.
Different hedge colours, textures and forms can contribute to a wide range of garden styles.
Dense, glossy foliage provides an evergreen backdrop for palms, bananas, bromeliads and other bold planting. Taller hedges can enclose the garden and create the sheltered feeling associated with a subtropical setting.
Native Living Walls™ hedges can provide structure while sitting naturally alongside other New Zealand plants. Green, grey-green or bronzed foliage can be combined with flaxes, grasses, ferns and other native forms.
Evergreen hedges can define the edges of gardens planted with ferns, hellebores, hydrangeas and other shade-tolerant plants. Choose varieties suited to the available light and avoid competition from large established tree roots.
Simple evergreen forms can contribute to the balance and restraint of a Japanese-inspired garden. Clipped hedges work particularly well with stone, gravel, moss and carefully placed specimen plants.
Low hedges can organise beds and paths, while bay and citrus can contribute both structure and harvest. Growing conditions and available space will determine which options are suitable.
Garden styles are a guide, not a set of rules. Choose what you like and what works for your space. A Living Walls™ hedge can help shape the result, providing privacy, definition or structure and a sense of maturity from the start.
Your hedge needs to suit both the look you want and the practical requirements of your site.
Start with the height you want the hedge to reach and what it needs to do, whether that is privacy, screening, structure or edging.
Then consider sun, shade, frost and wind exposure, soil and drainage, available width and root space, and the level of ongoing trimming and care required.
Explore Living Walls™ by Garden Style for a broader reference list of hedges that can contribute to each look.
You can also use A Hedge for Every Garden to compare hedges by growing conditions, features and intended use, or view our Price List for current sizes, prices and availability.
We’ve grown your hedge for you.
