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Suggestions for screening plants - full sun, exposed position, around 7ft tall?

ThankthecatThankthecat Posts: 421
in Garden design
Hello lovely people, as you can see from the heading I have a specific situation and not enough plant knowledge! We will soon be installing an above ground pool in one corner of our garden but it's a bit overlooked by neighbours so we'd like to screen it on two sides. We don't have much room to play with so the screening plants need to be happy in fairly narrow beds - around 2ft deep - but with a run of 12ft wide on each of the two sides. Ideally I would like something evergreen as although the pool won't be used in autumn and winter I don't really want a ton of leaves to deal with. I did think bamboo initially, to go for the vertical asap without the hassle of trimming a shrub / hedge. But I quickly had second thoughts on that as I read more about their habits and the fact that they're not ideally suited to the full sun / exposed situation anyway. Any suggestions? 

Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Hmm ... tricky ... just because a plant is ‘evergreen’ that doesn’t mean it doesn’t drop its leaves ... what happens is that it drops them a few at a time thoughout the year so it depends which you’d find easiest to deal with ... all the leaves falling together in about a month when you could keep the pool covered, or a few every day or so and you’ll have to get the skimmer out every couple of days to remove half a dozen leaves?


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • ThankthecatThankthecat Posts: 421
    Ooh Dove, I hadn't thought about that... But really I suppose evergreen, if only because, much as we want a bit of privacy from our neighbours, they probably don't want to see our pool either. It's not the prettiest thing in creation... Also there is a strong possibility that we will want to start using the pool early in the spring, before leaves have formed on deciduous shrubs. Good point though!
  • steephillsteephill Posts: 2,841
    Six foot fence panels topped off with a couple of feet of trellis to run vigorous climbers along is your fastest option. I can't think of any hedging which will quickly get to 7 feet and then stop. Nor will it be happy in such a narrow bed.
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    Could you build raised beds around the pool to give you some initial height, then plant something lower-growing? Might widen your planting options a bit.

    I have a Nandina Domestica hedge that was planted in an exposed position as a windbreak/screen at the edge of my terrace. The plants themselves are about 5ft, plus the height of the bed. Does the job pretty well without being too solid, doesn’t seem to drop leaves much. The berries in winter can get messy when they drop, but you could snip them off!
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    PS - the bed is less than 2ft wide and they seem happy enough.
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
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