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ideas of what to plant to (quickly) screen a school building

paul grahampaul graham Posts: 8
in Garden design

Hi all, I'm hoping for some helpful advice please. Our neighbours (quite rightly) have removed a tall (Leylandii) tree from their garden, unfortunately this now reveals an unattractive 2-storey school building now in our line of sight and also reduces our privacy.

The bottom line is, we need some kind of screening plant at least 5.5m high, with fairly dense foliage, to screen the building without waiting months/ years for the plant to establish. Are there trees available to buy that big, which would do the job? We looked at Photinia Red Robin, but I think it would be a bit on the short side. Can anyone suggest any other screening ideas, which would give us 'instant' screening over that kind of height?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Paul

Posts

  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,697
    If you Google "buy mature trees" or "instant hedging" you'll be able to see the plants available and the companies that supply them. Unfortunately it will be expensive.
  • MrsGardenMrsGarden Posts: 3,951
    If its just the one tree you want to replace, try your local (large) garden centre. Many have a stock of fairly tall trees for a reasonable price. They will need time to fill out but a good starting point before spending s fortune perhaps.
  • hogweedhogweed Posts: 4,053

    Presumably you want an evergreen? Try Eucalyptus - fairly quick growing as well.

    'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
  • paul grahampaul graham Posts: 8

    Many thanks for the useful replies! I've had a further look online and I reckon we will go for something shorter than what we ideally want - Ceres, you are right, they are expensive image. Mrs Garden and Hogweed, thanks for the tips - a trip to the garden centre is a good idea.

  • DutchieDutchie Posts: 4

    Had a similar issue with a 3.5 meter streetlight next to my garden. We planted a Liquidambar styraciflua which was about 3m. tall when we planted it. It was quite an investment but the tree put on another 1.2m. in the 2 years following. It does well in peaty soil. The autumn foliage is stunning. Easy to prune into the right shape as well.

  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698

    Box trained hornbeam could be an option: http://www.instanthedges.co.uk/our-products/pleached-trees/box-head-trees.html

     

    Do you need 5.5m high screening? You only have to screen your line of sight, not necessarily the full height of the building. But a boxed hornbeam hedge would give you a screen of about 1.5m height raised on a 1.8m stem, so would provide a screening height of 3.3m. You could allow it to grow somewhat taller in time.

    Otherwise you could look at mature specimen trees such as Quercus ilex, various hollies, Magnolia grandiflora etc

    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • paul grahampaul graham Posts: 8

    Thanks for the idea Dutchie - the colours on that one look amazing from the pics I've seen online. We will probably go for an evergreen though.

    WillDB - yep, we've done the geometry and unfortunately to screen the building from our line of sight when we are upstairs will require roughly 5.5m height. However, we are coming round to the idea of just living with the loss of privacy from upstairs and settling for something a bit smaller which will still screen us when we are downstairs - the hornbeam you refer to would do the job fine - an interesting option.

     

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