Forum home› Plants
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Screening overlooked garden

HP1980HP1980 Posts: 5
in Plants
Hello,
I'm sure you've spotted this question somewhere before but I couldn't find what I needed. First, I am a useless gardener - so if you're kind enough to offer some ideas, do do it in layman's terms for me!

We live in a terraced house - with a row of terraced houses behind us too. So we have neighbours everywhere and we are heavily overlooked.

We're looking to for advice on plants / trees approx 4 meters tall - which I think would be enough to block out the back neighbours' top windows - with a width to cover 5 meters in total, the width of the garden. 

As novices, we thought a series of potted bamboos along the back fence might be the best bet... but even then we can't identify which type of bamboos would achieve this.

A photo below. We'll be lucky to block out the hideous extension to the top right of the garden... Oh, and the patio at the back, that will be knocked out and go back to grass... so it doesn't absolutely have to be a container plant.

Thanks so much.
«1

Posts

  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    What are you planning on doing that requires so much privacy? I would suggest putting up such tall trees might be a bit unneighbourly since you'd be shading out someone's garden.

    The solution suggested in another thread was to use a temporary sail shade type cover for when you want to sit out without the feeling of being watched. 
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • HP1980HP1980 Posts: 5
    Is 4m too much then? There are large evergreens in many of the gardens up and down the street doing the same thing - I'm not suggesting anything to that degree. The photos don't show it but each garden is 20m long or so... so I don't think we'd be taking any light other than perhaps from the back shed.
  • HP1980HP1980 Posts: 5
    Thank you.
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    How about an evergreen tree like a holly. Had exactly the same problem in my last house planted a variegated form and it did the job plus birds love the berries. Under it you could plant woodland/shade loving plants and make it a feature.  
  • BenDoverBenDover Posts: 488
    Often surprises me how paranoid British people are at being watched or overlooked by neighbours, as if they spend all their time standing at their windows looking out of them, and believing that most of the time they are standing there they are staring at you!  Think about it.  Do you do that?  No.  So why do we think they do that?  I would say in the majority of cases, neighbours do not.  If they do, then that's just unfortunate and you've just got weird neighbours.  Not much you can do about that.  Rather than blocking them out, you should encourage them in by just concentrating on creating a nice garden which can be enjoyed by everybody around you.  You might even inspire them to do their own.  You could even get to know them, which if you do ever see them at their windows looking at you can include simply waving at them and saying hello.  The world already has enough walls (and high hedges).
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • HP1980HP1980 Posts: 5
    The idea of screening plants isn't so people can't look in... it's to make it nicer for everyone (us, mainly). Would you prefer to look at a big block of brick with a few dots of glass, or something a bit greener - it so happens that we're in the middle of a small patch of the street that doesn't have a large tree between front and back neighbours to break it up a bit. But cheers for your advice... we'll take down our fences too.
  • HP1980HP1980 Posts: 5
    edited June 2018
    Thanks Ian. This isn't about privacy - we won't get that here. But if you have any advice, do let me know. Something 3 - 4 meters tall I'm thinking.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • blameitonthedogblameitonthedog Posts: 122
    We live in a terrace of four small cottages with narrow gardens although there are no houses at the end of our garden.  I do understand and empathise with the feeling of not wanting to be overlooked from all angles.

    I do think though that tall screening to all sides needs careful thought.  Because of the narrowness, anything tall to the left side of my garden throws it into full shade for most of the day; anything tall to the right side throws my neighbours garden into full shade all day.  Both options also give both neighbours the chore of maintaining/pruning back overhanging growth...which *can* be lovely but often a bit overwhelming in relatively small, narrow garden.

    I would try to plan for a few strategically placed, 'well behaved' small trees/large shrubs and it's a great opportunity for a pergola covered with some climbers over a seating area.


Sign In or Register to comment.