When you think of 'privacy planting,' you may be envisioning impenetrable boxwoods, pruned like a fortress around a home. With record-high temperatures in 2026, however, it's time to get creative. Drought-tolerant plants can be just as effective, and often chicer, than traditional privacy planting alternatives.
Take, for example, the front garden of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick's Los Angeles house. Perfectly planted for Southern California, their green space features a variety of agave plants, birds of paradise, rosemary, and California Pepper trees. The varied, drought-tolerant plants look gorgeous in their vertical beds and do a fantastic job blocking out the view into their large mid-century modern windows.
