A sorbus (rowan) might work well. Flowers in spring and berries in autumn, and nice delicate-looking foliage in between. There are lots of varieties with different coloured berries.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
A magnolia has quite a sprawling habit, they look great, but will get in the way until they get tall enough. Well that's my experience with them!
Planting close to boundaries is a real pain when your neighbours decide to severe limbs.
I've a small apple tree, it's great, it produces fruit, but I can't get under it. It's a bit of an exclusion zone! Which is fine, and probably goes without saying, but be prepared to not be able to use that part of the garden until the tree is tall enough.
Thought I’d provide an update as I always like it when others do that We ended up choosing a fairly mature Magnolia Kobus and that was planted in February. As it matures it will continue to spread out and provide more coverage but shouldn’t get to the kind of height that will cause issues for the neighbours.
We also just built a pergola over the decked area which provides more screening too. We’re growing a clematis armandii up one side (and eventually over the top) and the Generous Gardener rose up the other side.
Some photos of how things are looking now (I tried to take these from the same positions as the original before photos):
Obligatory Magnolia blossom photo from April :
We were never going to get instant 100% coverage but we’re very happy with the result and look forward to watching the space mature.
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