If you're driving down the road, doing a bit of car botany as many of us do, or simply noticing the blooms each year, you’ll see that the modern American hedge is more emblematic of Eurasia than of the northeastern United States. Honeysuckle, barberry, and privet — oh my! In this article, we’ll look at both the horticultural atrocities and the productive possibilities in the world of native hedge alternatives.

The modern American hedge needs a facelift. But what do we do? Like all gardening, it starts with intention. I believe there’s a Goldilocks zone here, where we create hyper‑diverse native microhabitats while also catering to our favorite local flavors and needs.

If you're looking to incorporate more forage into the hedge,  consider species like  

• Elderberry - for its fast growth, early foliage, and beautiful, consumable flowers and berries. It is also a host to the largest moth in North America, the Cecropia moth! 

• Dwarf chinkapin or scrub oak (Quercus prinoides & Q. ilicifolia) - for the obvious reason of being mast-producing, these shrubs are essential to supporting wildlife. These oaks are also small and contained and in the case of scrub oak even taking well to trimming or disturbance. 

• American Hazelnut - unlike the small European hazelnut tree, this one forms dense thickets reaching desirable heights for someone  looking for functional privacy. The nuts are slightly small but absolutely delicious.  

• Blueberry - as we’ve discussed in previous articles, they’re a powerhouse host plant, and they support exclusively native pollinators while producing delicious berries. Between both highbush and lowbush species, there’s likely a blueberry to match most people’s needs. 

• Serviceberry - planted young and given good sun, these plants can develop multiple stems and mature into understory‑sized trees, adding a fresh layer to the landscape. There are also creeping and shrubby species worth considering. As members of the rose family, they offer beautiful early‑season blooms and equally lovely June berries. 

• Chokeberry (Aronia) - whether its a creeping form or true shrub, Aronia are an absolutely great choice for a foragable hedge. Resilient, beautiful, and highly nutritious, red chokberry fits wet areas, while black chokeberry can fit even the most rugged barren soils.  

• Viburnum - with a huge variety of species (make sure its native), these flowering shrubs support incredible bird diversity and grow into thick, sturdy shrubs. Some like V. lentago produce foragable fruit.

Elderberry

A hazelnut & viburnum hedge

While some of these shrubs aren’t quite as densely thick as privet, adding layers like vines and forbs (flowers) can create visual interest throughout the hedge and greatly increase diversity. Even if you’re simply adding to a fence, vigorous vines like maypop (Passiflora incarnata) can help tie everything together by adding a foliage screen, flowers, and seasonal forage. The fruits typically mature only in warm microclimates or in the Piedmont ecoregion. Smaller vines like groundnut (Apios americana) can add a beautiful touch to a red‑twig dogwood or elderberry hedge, while also offering edible peas and tubers. This species is pollinated by leaf‑cutting bees, the only bees with the strength and size to trigger the flower’s spring‑loaded pollination mechanism — but that’s a story for another article. Other worthwhile vines include pipevine (Aristolochia) and American bittersweet (Celastrus scandens) for wildlife value.