Hey, you have an area in your landscape that
you wanna screen? This little guy may be just the answer. Who doesn't have areas in their garden or
their landscape that they wanna screen or hide? You know, those eye sores that you don't wanna
look at? One way to look at it is, well, an opportunity,
an opportunity to plant a living screen in the form of a hedge. Take a look at this hedge: This is actually
Needlepoint Holly. And you can see that it's about five feet
tall. And when I planted it, I started with plants
this size. This plant will grow about a foot and a half,
once it gets established, a year, which is pretty impressive. I planted these about ever three feet apart,
and then over time, they began to knit together as well as grow up and hide the area that
I wanted to screen. You see, you can't even look through here. I mean, there could be a used car lot on the
other side, and you'd never know it. But in this case, there's just a green house
over there on the other side. Now what's great about these Needlepoint Hollies:
It's evergreen, it has beautiful red berries on it throughout the fall and the winter and
very early spring, and it delivers what it promises -- it's a great screening plant. The key to growing a plant like this is getting
the right plant in the right place. These plants love full sun, they love soil
that's well drained, and you wanna make sure that the moisture level is, well, consistent. Come on over here, let me show you something
else. As you can see, this hedge is taller. It was planted at the same time as that other
one. We just allowed it to grow up higher before
we started cutting it off horizontally. The more you prune these hedges the thicker
they get. We prune these about twice a year. They could be pruned a little more than that,
but early on when you're trying to establish the hedge, it's good to prune it and make
sure it's growing in the direction you want it to. The more you cut the more those little lateral
limbs that come out, and it thickens up quicker. Now, the other thing to do is prune a hedge
where it's slightly thinner at the top and wider at the bottom. You never want a hedge to grow too wide at
the top and stay narrow at the bottom because then the sun is shaded from the bottom, and
you could start losing leaves along the base here. You know, what's interesting is this hedge
grew from this plant. So, you can see, from tiny plants big hedges
can grow and solve problems for you. If you're looking for more ideas on how to
make improvements to your landscape, tell a friend about us, and subscribe to eHow Home.