5 Easy Ways to Add Evergreen Structure and Year-Round Style to Your Yard

Evergreens are key for providing the bones of a garden, especially during the winter when herbaceous perennials have died back and deciduous specimens have dropped their leaves. Providing year-round structure and a framework for the rest of the planting, evergreens can be used to add height, texture and even some playful aspects to your yard.

During my horticultural career, I’ve had the opportunity to use all manner of evergreens in the gardens I have managed and owned, both when starting a garden from scratch and when updating the design.

If you're thinking about ways to update your garden design in the new year, I reveal some of the best evergreen trees, hedging plants, shrubs and climbers that will create an everlasting, natural framework for your garden – the most effective way, in my opinion, to landscape with evergreens.

How to Create an Evergreen Framework For Your Backyard

Often long-lived, evergreens are a great investment for your garden and can be used either to support other planting or be the main focus of a design.

Providing such an important and long-lasting element, evergreens, along with any hard landscaping, are crucial to get right and are often the first steps to be planned and installed.

From creating boundaries and providing all-year screening to framing a pathway or trellis, evergreens aren’t just essential but can also bring your yard to life.

Evergreen hedging

Commonly forming the backdrop and boundaries to our outside spaces, hedges are a great alternative to a fence. They are wildlife-friendly, can help prevent intruders and even be scented.

Landscaping with hedges is nothing new, but you might be surprised at how many ways they can be used.

For example, a smartly clipped English yew (Taxus baccata) hedge is perfect for creating formality in a garden and very effective when used to contrast against more informal planting such as ornamental grasses or billowing perennials.

Tough and hardy, yew is ideal for both a tall boundary or as a short front garden hedge to frame a gate or entrance.

A cross between English and Japanese yew (Taxus cuspidata), Hicks Yew (Taxus x media 'Hicksii) is a popular evergreen hybrid that is suitable for growing in zone 4-7. You can purchase Hicks Yew from Garden Goods Direct.

For a brighter green than yew and with large glossy leaves, laurel is a great choice. A low-maintenance evergreen, cherry laurel tolerates both shade and dry conditions and is useful as a windbreak or to soften unwanted noise. Producing scented white flowers in spring, it is suitable for growing in zones 6-9. Otto Luyken cherry laurel is available to purchase from Fast Growing Trees.

Evergreen trees

An Evergreen framework for a front or backyard would not be complete without trees. Delivering structure and year-round color and interest, evergreen trees have an important role to play.

Thankfully, there are several easy-to-grow evergreen trees that are suitable for a typical domestic garden. These include thuja, juniper, magnolia, strawberry tree and holly, with the latter two being my personal go-tos.

Arbutus unedo, or the strawberry tree, as it is also called, is a fast-growing evergreen that is native to the Mediterranean. Grown for its white flowers, red fruits, glossy green foliage and attractive bark, this evergreen shrub-tree is a great choice for non-stop interest. Suitable for growing in full sun and zone 7-10, you can purchase a dwarf strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo 'Compacta') from Nature Hills.

Dark green, shiny foliage and a beautiful shape make holly (Ilex) an ideal year-round tree. Furthermore, when pollinated, holly produces striking red berries that are a vital winter food source for songbirds.

Generally hardy and suitable for growing in zones 6 and above, holly is perfect for growing at the back of a border, screening an unwanted view, or developing an anti-intruder boundary hedge. You can choose from an array of holly shrubs and trees at Nature Hills.

Evergreens for bordering pathways

Helping create flow and leading the user on a journey through different zones, pathways are a core element of garden design. But how can you frame them all year round?

One option is to use evergreens, either as repetitive mounds or as a solid low hedge.

Repeating low-growing mounding evergreens can provide rhythm and complement interwoven annuals and perennials.

Examples such as Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Golf Ball' or Boxwood ‘Winter Gem’ (Buxus microphylla var. japonica 'Winter Gem') are commonly used due to their compact growth and mound-like shape. However, for colder areas I would lean towards box varieities due to their hardier nature.

For a low hedge, Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) is again commonly grown, but suitable alternatives include dwarf spindle tree (Euonymus) varieties and Japanese holly (Ilex crenata), especially where Box tree moths (Cydalima perspectalis) are prevalent.

Thriving when grown in zones 5-9, you can purchase Boxwood ‘Winter Gem’ from Nature Hills.

Evergreen climbers

Climbing plants are frequently used to cover a bare wall or train up a trellis or pergola, but for year-round interest, you will want to choose an evergreen climber.

Evergreen clematis (Clematis armandii) and ivy (Hedera) are often used due to their tough and dependable nature, but other options are available.

For example, in my previous gardens, I regulary included star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), perhaps one of the best flowering climbers. Prized for its dark green foliage, it is in the summer months that it performs its best and you can appreciate its sweetly-scented white flowers. Less hardy than others, star jasmine requires protection from cold winds and is suitable for growing below US hardiness zone 8.

Another slightly unusual evergreen climber, is the chocolate vine, or Akebia quinata, as it is also called. Ideal for training along a trellis, it vigorously develops attractive, bright green leaves followed by delicate, maroon, chocolate-scented flowers in summer. More hardy than the star jasmine, it generally thrives in zone 6 and above, but may experience some leaf drop in colder parts.

However, the chocolate vine is considered an invasive species in many parts of the eastern United States due to its strong growth and ability to smother other plants.

You can purchase Star Jasmine from Nature Hills.

Topiary

Often used as focal points and to create structure, topiary can also add a playful element to a garden. Only limited by one’s imagination, I’ve seen castle battlements, chickens, dogs and even elephants skilfully created out of evergreen hedges and shrubs.

Looking impressive all year round, topiary looks especially effective come winter when little other form exists and almost magical after a frost.

The best plants for topiary generally focus on evergreen small-leaved shrubs, with topiarists tending to favour yew, box and privet (Ligustrum) for their creations.

A hardy evergreen, Delavay privet (Ligustrum delavayanum) is another box alternative that is resistant to the box moth caterpillar. A compact shrub, it produces small dark green leaves and white flowers in early summer, before developing blue-black berries.

Drought-tolerant, it is well-suited to growing in US hardiness zones 6-9 tolerates both full sun and partial shade. Considered a fast-growing hedge, it requires regular pruning to keep a tight shape.

Evergreens are great for forming structure and providing some winter interest, but what can you add to make a garden come alive over the often-bleak months?

These best winter plants for pots and borders will show you how even a few additions can bring your garden to life when other plants are dormant.