When you're swinging in a hammock on a breezy fall day, eating dinner with your family in the shade of a wise old oak or barbecuing with friends, you probably don't want the world looking in on your backyard scene of splendor.

By placing the right plants in the right combination, you can create a privacy hedge that will also add beauty and value to your home.

One plant dominates the privacy hedge market in South Florida, the Ficus benjamina. If you want a hedge that grows at the speed of light, then the common ficus hedge is for you.

Ficus benjamina is not like most hedge plants. If you were to plant one Ficus benjamina in an open field and leave it alone, it would grow to a massive shade tree 50 feet tall by 50 feet wide. Keeping a hedge of 20 to 40 ficus plants the right size can be quite costly and time-consuming. While the ficus is cheap to buy, maintenance will cost you 10 times what you save on the purchase. In addition, ficus root systems are vigorous and will explore neighboring yards and may do damage to structures.

The aggressive ficus hedge has another caveat: the ficus whitefly from China, Singhiella simplex, which was accidentally brought into the United States and has selected South Florida's ficus trees as its new favorite food.

The whitefly is often seen in combination with the weeping ficus thrip, Gynaikothrips uzeli, and together they move through neighborhoods, turning green and vigorous ficus hedges into yellowed, defoliated skeletons.

So what is a homeowner to do? Fear not. A multitude of plant choices, many of them natives, can take the place of the fallen ficus. These plants are best used in different combinations, creating a multilayered and textured informal hedge that brings privacy, beauty, birds and butterflies to any landscape.

These plants do not need irrigation, fertilizer or pesticides and are excellent substitutes for the aggressive and outdated Ficus benjamina.

• Allspice, Pimenta dioica: This is an attractive tree with dark green, ribbed leaves and a multihued peeling brown to tan trunk. The tree is columnar in shape and may reach heights of 20 feet. Its outstanding feature is the heavenly fragrance of the allspice leaf when crushed. This plant can tolerate shade, but does best in full sun.

• Firebush, Hamelia patens: This is one of the best native plants in South Florida, bearing small, red, tubular flowers that give the plant its name. The flowers, which grow year-round, attract butterflies and hummingbirds. The tree grows to 15 feet but is highly manageable through pruning and can be kept as a shrub of four to six feet. The leaves are green with an occasional red blush. If the firebush is planted near the native passionflower, Passiflora suberosa, you will have a complete habitat for the zebra longwing butterflies. This plant does best in full sun.

• Florida boxwood, Schaefferia frutescens: This Florida native is underused. Its leaves are small and dark green; its small, white flowers produce fruit that attract several species of birds. The growth rate is moderate and the plant can grow to 10 feet high and eight feet wide. Full sun is best, but it will do well in partial shade.

• Jamaican caper, Capparis cynophallophora: This native will reach a height of about 10 feet and tends to be columnar. The leaves are extremely glossy and have tiny hairs on the underside that give them a velvet appearance. The flowers are an elegant white or light purple and produce fruit that will attract birds. Likes light shade or full sun.

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