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Fast hedge, beautiful hedge, both

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hedge leaf
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1The number people actually want

'Green Giant' arborvitae, the plant that's largely replaced Leyland cypress for living fences, grows three to four feet a year and reaches 40 to 60 feet at full maturity — plant it wanting fast privacy and you'll get it within a couple of seasons.

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2Spacing decides how soon it closes up

Hedging arborvitae is planted five to six feet apart to leave room for each plant to spread and still knit together into a solid screen, rather than staying as separate visible trees.

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3One species, one bad year

A screen made of a single species can be wiped out in one season by a disease or pest that targets exactly that plant. A mixed hedge of two or three different screening plants is slower to plan but never goes bald all at once.

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4It still needs a haircut

Fast growers stay a manageable hedge height only with roughly annual pruning; skip a few years and 'hedge' quietly becomes 'row of trees,' at which point getting it back down to size means cutting into bare wood that may never fill in again.

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